Tomorrow is a Long Time
by DCFanatic4life
Summary: Chris Jericho, Stephanie McMahon, and a reality show!  Now who in the world would want to watch that?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or real people portrayed in this story. The characters belong to WWE and the real people own themselves. I just get to play around with them for a while.

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**A/N: I know I shouldn't start any more stories, but I like to think I'm okay with updating and this idea just hit me the other night and I wanted to write it and so I did and this is what came out. It's slightly AU in that neither Chris nor Stephanie have ever been married or had any kids. The ages are the same and it takes place in present day. That's pretty much all you need to know going into the story. I hope that you enjoy it and if you don't, you can be brutal, I always encourage brutality if you want to dish it. But leave a review and let me know if it's worth keeping in the rotation or not. Thanks. :)

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"No, Dad, I'm not doing it."

"Stephanie, we need the programming and I think this would make compelling television. You can't deny that this story is interesting."

"You mean exploitation."

"I think that you should do it and it is in your contract that I have creative control-"

"Not over my life!" she yelled at him.

"Well, technically…"

* * *

"_So do you maybe want to explain the situation to the audience so we can familiarize ourselves with what's going on?"_

"_Hi," Stephanie said, sitting back against the comfortable couch, her hands folded in her lap as she looked at the camera. She gave a smile, but it felt forced to her. Hell, this whole thing was forced and she could not believe the kind of stipulations her father had in her contract. She never thought he would use those and now she was mad she had signed it without her lawyer going over it with a fine-toothed comb. "I'm Stephanie McMahon, I'm an Executive Vice President in World Wrestling Entertainment."_

"_Okay, that's great, now, what's going on with your life."_

"_Well, this show was designed to show lives outside the ring and we're doing a different wrestler every season," Stephanie said._

"_No, we know that, Stephanie," the producer said from behind the camera. "We're going to explain that in the way we handle the opening credits, a quick summary. Plus, with the press release, the advertising, we want to know what's going on in your personal life."_

"_Oh, um, okay," she said, looking down at her hands. "Well, like I said, I'm Stephanie McMahon, daughter of Vince McMahon, the president of World Wrestling Entertainment. I'm currently five months pregnant with my first child and this is kind of a fun video diary type thing as my dad put it."_

_Or blackmailed her into it really. She felt like she was on display right now. She'd never felt like she was so much on display and she had modeled for her father at an early age in stupid t-shirts of wrestlers she didn't like. She couldn't believe her father thought that people would actually watch this and like it. It was stupid and she felt embarrassed to have her personal life being filmed as it were._

"_So what's the situation with you pregnant, can you get into that?"_

"_Um, well, I decided that I wanted a baby," Stephanie said, "and I'm in my early 30's and I've always wanted a family…I think everybody kind of wants some semblance of a family, whether it's being married or adopting or having a bunch of animals, it's all some kind of family and I felt like I wanted a family."_

"_So you decided to get pregnant?"_

"_I did," Stephanie said, "I wanted to be pregnant and so I wanted that family. I don't think it's unreasonable to start wanting that."_

"_Did things go as planned?"_

"_Um," she could feel her cheeks burning a little bit. "No, things did not really go as I had originally planned them."_

"_What was your original plan?"_

"_Well, I'm not and wasn't currently seeing anyone, but I thought…um, that I could just take things into my own hands so to speak and um, get a donor or something, do I really have to say all this?" Stephanie asked. "I mean, I'm embarrassed about that and it didn't happen anyways, can we just say it didn't work out?"_

"_Yeah, sure," the producer said. She seemed like a really nice woman and Stephanie could sense that Amy knew she was uncomfortable with talking like this. "So do you want to talk about Dad then?"_

"_I guess," Stephanie nodded, sighing. "Well, I…what do I even say?"_

"_Whatever you're comfortable with, Stephanie," Amy urged her. "No rush."_

"_Getting pregnant actually happened by accident. Despite wanting to start thinking of a family, I guess I wasn't actually going ahead with the plan so to speak. I don't know what I really wanted to happen. I guess, single motherhood sounded fine to me. I've always thought myself a really independent person, able to do anything and I thought motherhood was going to be part of that and I knew I could do both jobs really well. But um, again, it didn't happen like that. Not that what happened is bad, it's not!"_

"_So do you want to go into what happened?"_

"_Um, well, just, things happened and I got pregnant."_

"_And who is the baby's father? The other part of the equation."_

"_Chris Irvine is my baby's father."_

"People are just going to reinforce the slut image," Stephanie said, shaking her head. "I can't believe my father is forcing me into doing this."

"Steph, it's going to be okay, I'm going to be right there with you."

Stephanie looked over at Chris. "And look at what my dad did for you? He's making you move in with me. I'm convinced that this is some crazy way to get you to marry me because you knocked me up, but then I think to myself, no, no, my dad is more than willing to put my entire life out there for ratings."

"It'll be okay, I don't mind moving in with you."

"Until the baby is born," she said, looking at him. "Chris, I told you…"

"Yes, you told me, but I'm sorry, Stephanie, I don't sleep with a girl and then dump my kid."

"I couldn't even tell the truth, everyone is going to think we slept together while drunk or something and not that we just slept together consciously. I mean, yeah, it was a moment of loneliness I guess and release, but I wanted a baby and so I said that no protection was the way to go and you said that was okay and I said I would take care of the baby myself if it did happen and it _did_ happen and-"

"Like hell I wasn't going to help you," he told her. "We're friends, right?"

They'd been friends since 2000, right when their storyline had started up. They'd hung out together at first because of that storyline. They'd had to spend time together, going over storylines, planning on spots in matches; it just all evolved into a genuine friendship. They had continued to hang out over the years and even when he'd left for a couple of those years, he'd gone out of his way to see her every now and then. Were they best friends? No, she had her best friends and he had his, but they were good friends and she considered herself close with him. Of course, now they were closer than close, but she trusted Chris above all else.

She also wasn't blind. Chris was a good-looking guy and sure, there had been moments where _something_ flared between them, but it never went explored because it was so easy to just fall into that friendship role. Chris had confided in her that he was nearing 40 and it had crossed his mind that he didn't have that family or those kids he'd thought he'd have by now and that was why having one with her, having this crazy put-together family with her didn't seem like such a scary thing at this age.

"And nobody seems to understand that," she said, leaning against the couch. "Now we're going to be filmed the whole day and people are going to gawk at us like we're monkeys at the zoo."

"Nobody is going to gawk."

"They're going to talk behind our backs. This is all my dad's fault. He just can't stand it, he just cannot stand this whole situation. He's trying to shame us into giving in and getting married and doing that whole thing and I know…I wouldn't do that to you."

"Do what to me?"

"Force you to marry me," she told him.

"I know," he said, then he scooted over to her on the couch, "Come here, give me a hug, right now, hug me up."

Stephanie laughed and hugged him tightly. Sometimes she felt like Chris was the only one who understood her. She hadn't asked him for anything, but he had told her the moment she found out she was pregnant that she wasn't a single mom, that their kid had two parents and they were going to raise this kid together and he'd do whatever she needed, whenever she needed. She may not love Chris that way and he may not love her in that way either, but she loved him for everything he was doing for her.

"You're the best," she whispered into his neck.

"I know I am, why do you think you chose to have a kid with me?" he joked with her, glad that she was starting to feel better. He could almost curse Vince for putting them in this situation. It wasn't so much that he hated it, but he hated it for Stephanie. She didn't feel pretty with the pregnancy, nobody understood the circumstances surrounding it, and it was an invasion of privacy. All for the new 24-hour WWE channel that Vince had dreamed up that was no coming to fruition. They needed more original programming so his brainchild had been to have wrestling reality shows and what was the most intriguing one to him? Why putting his daughter on display like an animal of course! Only Vince would use her in that way.

"It was more out of convenience," she laughed and he liked to hear it.

"Yeah, well, many, many women would love to be in your position," Chris told her. "I mean, getting me as a baby-daddy, what more could you ask for? I've got the looks, the personality, the smarts."

"Save it for the camera, Mr. Cocky," Stephanie said, then laughed mirthlessly. "How is this going to be compelling TV?"

"Fans love knowing what's going on backstage," Chris said. "I bet that we'd get viewers even if we were just walking down the hall. But I'm sure that your dad is going to make us do stuff like take the cameras to the doctor's, film me fixing up the nursery, me moving in, me wrestling, me doing whatever, us going out on dates with whoever-"

"Who's going to go out with a pregnant woman right now? Every guy will either be scared by the stomach or they will think I'm taken."

"Okay, then I'll go out on dates unless you want me to form some kind of celibacy solidarity with you, hey, there's an episode right there. We're both going through a dry spell and then it becomes like a, 'will they have sex by the time the episode is over?' type thing and then everyone will think we're going to have sex, then, bam, episode over!"

Stephanie covered her face, "People would talk about us eve more."

"But it'd be fun to have everyone be like, oh my God, those two did it!" Chris said in a sassy voice.

"No, our sex life or lack thereof has been discussed enough. I don't want them to discuss it anymore, what we did in our bedroom is none of their business…so we'll stick to just boring everyday stuff."

"Well then maybe your dad will cancel us before the penultimate episode where you give birth," he told her. "That way you won't have your hoo-ha broadcast all over the world."

"If you think for one second I'm allowing a video camera in there when I'm giving birth, you've got another thing coming to you, Irvine," Stephanie said. "I'm not allowing anyone in there but you and my mom."

"You want me in there?" Chris asked, his lips lifting up in a small smile.

"Of course I want you in there, you deserve to be in there," she told him, grabbing his hands.

"Thanks," he said, hugging her again. "Don't worry, Steph, believe me, things will be fine, this show will be great and then it'll be over and we can really focus on parenthood, okay?"

"Okay, I'll believe you."

She wanted to believe him too. That was the key here. They had to rely on each other and do what was right for them and the life they were bringing into the world. Nobody may agree with what they were doing, but they had each other and in the end, that was all they needed. She'd originally planned to do this on her own, but when Chris, when they made that momentary decision not to use protection, when she'd asked if it was okay, they'd made their choice and neither one regretted it.

"_So Stephanie, is there anything else you'd like to tell us about the situation, what's going on with you and Chris and the pregnancy? Anything that might be vital?" Amy asked before Stephanie had to leave. One last question for the road._

"_Yes, there is one."_

"_What would that be?"_

"_I'm having twins."_


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you so much for all the reviews. I'm really glad that you enjoyed the beginning of this story and that it's not too out there. Just for clarification, the italics are probably exclusively going to be the interview portions of the show. Hope it's not too confusing. So enjoy the chapter and if you want to review, I'd love it because I know the premise my be a little wonky. Enjoy. :)

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"_I'm definitely excited to become a father. I've wanted kids for a while now and I think that I would be a good father and who can go wrong with two for the price of one, right? I know a lot of people think that it's strange that I'm having a kid with Stephanie McMahon, but what they don't see is how amazing she actually is. I can't think of a better person to share children with."_

"_What is the nature of your relationship with Stephanie?"_

"_We're friends, good friends," he said, chuckling, "okay, I guess at this point you can say we're more than good friends. But we mutually wanted to have this baby so it's not like she coerced me or anything. I wanted to have a kid and we discussed it rationally and like adults and we decided that we would like a child and since it was something we both wanted, we were fine with the outcome."_

"_So you and Stephanie are not together in the romantic sense?"_

"_Well, I don't think so, she's not like my girlfriend or anything," Chris responded. "How our relationship has gone is really kind of between the two of us."_

"_Fair enough," Amy said, "and so you are moving in today to her house?"_

"_Yes, for one, Vince thinks it would be great for television and what Vince wants and all that, but other than that, I don't want to be a part-time father. I don't want to be the kind of guy who only sees his kids on weekends. I never intended to be that guy and I don't intend to be that guy now. I think moving in with Stephanie was the logical step. We're not going to be sharing a bed or anything like that, perverts, but this way I can be with my kids."_

"_Even before they come?" Amy prompted._

"_Stephanie is carrying two children so she's larger than a normal pregnant woman, but not any less beautiful, mind you, but things are getting more and more difficult with her. Have you seen her? She's gorgeous, but she's going to need help and I think being a father starts long before the children are born. I'm here for her, for whatever she needs, whenever she needs it. Even if she gets some strange craving for watermelon in the middle of the night, I'm on it."_

"Are you sure you don't need any help?" Stephanie asked as she watched Chris from the front door. He was unloading some of his things from the back of the car he'd just bought. He'd sold his one that he used in Florida and bought a new, more family-friendly car since he was going to be lugging around two kids pretty soon.

"Um, yeah, I don't think you're in any condition to carry heavy things," Chris said as he dragged some suitcases to the front door.

"Do you see this guy?" Stephanie said towards the camera filming them at the moment. "He won't even accept even a little bit of help."

"Would you let her help you?" Chris said, turning towards the camera. The camera guy shook his head. "See, Stephanie, he agrees with me. Would you just go rest, the doctor said that you should try to get as much rest as possible because you're too stressed as it is."

"It's just my personality," she argued. "I'm just an easily stressed person and with my job, it's easy to become that way."

"Yes, but your doctor said that you could develop preeclampsia. Isn't he checking for that during your next visit?"

"Yeah, but I'm fine."

"Stop acting like you know more than the doctor," Chris told her. She rolled her eyes and then he hugged her spontaneously. "I don't want anything to happen to you or the kids, got it?"

"Got it," she told him, hugging him back. Their fights were usually like that, short, light-hearted, and always ending in a hug or a kiss to the cheek. "I'm trying not to be stressed and I've left a lot of the work to the guys right under me…not a _word_, Christopher, and they're taking care of things while I work from Connecticut."

"She's going to be a great mother," Chris beamed towards the camera.

"_So Stephanie, when is your next appointment and are you excited?"_

"_I have my next appointment in about a week and Chris and I are both really excited. We're going to be finding out the sexes of the babies."_

"_So you want to know?"_

"_Yeah, we both really want to know what's going on in there. The babies have really just started to get active and I've felt them moving and bumping around in there for a little while, but it's really starting to get so Chris can feel it too and he's really excited over it."_

"You're just saying that," Stephanie said, but she was blushing slightly and she turned her head away because she was embarrassed.

"No, you really are," Chris said, the both of them forgetting the cameras were there for a second. He pulled away from her and smiled up at her face, since he was on a step below her on the porch. He took Stephanie's face in his hands and told her, "You are going to be amazing with them. I just know it."

"You really think so?"

"Stephanie, I've seen you with your nephews and you're great with them, I know you're going to be just as great with our kids," Chris told her and then leaned up to kiss the tip of her nose. "Okay, since my furniture isn't here yet, I guess I should just put these suitcases in my room."

"That's probably for the best," Stephanie said. "Oh, I forgot to mention that my parents wanted to stop by and having like a housewarming dinner or something. They're bringing over food since they thought we'd be tired. Is that okay?"

"Is this really just a chance for them to spy on me?"

"Yes," Stephanie laughed. "Especially my mom, I think. I know that she likes you and everything, but I'm not sure she trusts you and because you're going to be a part of my family when the babies come and you're pretty much part of it now that I'm pregnant."

"Wow, I never thought of it that way," he said as he started upstairs with Stephanie following him and a camera following them.

"What did you think you were going to be, some weird uncle we only see on holidays?" Stephanie joked. "Of course you're part of the family and I think my mom just wants to check you out, make sure you're on the up and up."

"Did she do the same with Marissa?" he asked as he set his bags by the door, then headed back downstairs, being sure to make a funny face towards the camera. They went downstairs and he flopped down on the couch and Stephanie sat next to him.

"Didn't have to, Rissa and Shane have known each other since they were kids. We were all neighbors growing up."

"So I'm just the riff-raff who's trying to root his way into the family, right?"

"No, she doesn't think that…" Chris gave her a look. "Okay, she thinks that a little, but only a little bit, she just doesn't get why we made the decision to have a child or in this case _children_ without being together. She doesn't understand the motivation, but then, she had me and Shane when she was fairly young so she just doesn't understand."

"So you're saying I have to prove my worth?" Chris wondered. "Should I wear diamonds and furs to this dinner then?"

"Don't be a jackass," she told him, shoving at him. There was a truck horn and Stephanie looked towards the door. "I guess that's the rest of your stuff, we better get unpacked."

"_So what do you think your parents think about all of this?" _

_Stephanie looked down at her hands and furrowed her brow. "I think it's a mix of excitement and trepidation. They're obviously excited because they get new grandchildren and my parents spoil my nephews so much it's insane. But I know they wanted better for me. I know they wanted me to be settled down with a husband before I did the kid thing. My mom has expressed concerns that I may never get married now. She doesn't say it outright, but she alludes to it enough times. I guess she thinks that no guy will ever want a woman with two kids who lives with the kids' father."_

"_Do you believe her?"_

"_No, not really, there's someone out there for me, I know it."_

"_So Chris, we asked Stephanie the same question, but what do your parents think about the situation?"_

"_Well, my mom actually passed away a few years ago," Chris said with a sigh, "I'm still having a tough time with that one, but my dad has let me live my life since I was 19 so he's just excited to get grandkids. My step-mom, Bonnie, has been buying out every baby store she can find and every week since I told them, I've gotten a package full of baby clothes. We don't even know what they are, but my step-mom is covering all bases."_

"_Stephanie said that her parents were having mixed feelings, your thoughts?"_

"_They worry about their daughter and I understand their reservations about the whole thing. I never intended to not marry or even be with the mother of my children, but I love Stephanie in my own way. They don't need to worry because I would never hurt Stephanie or my kids, _never_. They all mean way too much for me to hurt them. These kids are the best thing I've ever done with my life and I love them already."_

"Hey guys, we're going to give you guys a break, we'll be back tonight for your parents coming over," Amy said as she gave Stephanie and Chris a hug. "We'll see you guys later. Great stuff today and great interviews."

"Thanks," they said in unison and then laughed at their joint brains. The camera and sounds guys vacated their house and they finally breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad they're gone for a while, I feel like I constantly have to be on when they're here."

"Me too," Stephanie said, running a hand through her hair, "like a circus animal."

"That's exactly it. I think people are going to watch this and think we're the most boring people on the planet," Chris joked and Stephanie let her head fall against his shoulder.

"I hope so because then my dad will cancel the show and we won't have our lives on display," Stephanie said as Chris grabbed her hand. "The only thing interesting about us is that we're having a baby, otherwise, we're just two normal people. I don't get what the novelty is anyways. Tons of people have kids because they get drunk and sleep with someone they don't know. How is that right, you know? We made our decisions and we're happy with them, but we're made to look like a freak show because we didn't follow the common denominator."

"Don't let it get to you," Chris said, shaking her hand a little to buck her up.

"What did they ask you in your interview?" Stephanie asked.

"What my parents thought about it."

"See, like we're a freak show," Stephanie said. "Maybe we should just be boring."

"I think we already are," Chris laughed. Their lives were just their lives. They weren't trying to impress anyone and they weren't trying to get ratings. They were just living their lives and they didn't get the fascination people had with that. Why did someone want to know all the dirt, all their personal things? Vince was going way out on a limb with this idea and he just cursed the fact that he had roped Stephanie and Chris into it without their real consent. Sure, they'd signed the waivers, but it was in their contracts to do something like this and they couldn't get out of it.

"You're not boring," Stephanie said.

"Well neither are you," he told her.

"You're the one with a rock band and a best-selling autobiography and all of that going for you while I work behind the scenes, writing and overseeing things. If they ever came to work with me, they'd probably bore people to death," Stephanie said.

"You're totally interesting," Chris told her, looking at her. "At least I find you interesting."

"You're also having two children with me, you have to find me interesting," Stephanie told him. "I would be highly insulted if you didn't."

"I would've found you interesting with the kids or without them," Chris told her. "You're very interesting and I could probably listen to you talk for hours about great stories of your past. I bet you have a lot of good ones too."

"Yes, like when I was 15 and Shawn hit on me thinking that I was of age and then, while drunk at one of my parent's parties, tried to make out with me and groped me," Stephanie said, "like that kind of story?"

"What? No way!" Chris said, his jaw dropping. "Okay, if you told _that_ story while on camera, everyone would find you interesting…and they'd find Shawn kind of skeevy. That's really gross, did you correct him?"

"Yes, I did, multiple times, but I'm sure you know how Shawn was back then."

"Yeah, I may have to rethink my idolization of him since he tried to grope the future mother of my children," Chris told her. "Yeah, I may really have to talk to him about that."

"You can't!" Stephanie said. "I don't think he even remembers it."

"Yeah, yeah, I think I'm going to," he teased her and she started to push at him before she stopped. "What is it?"

"Hand please," she said, grabbing his hand and putting it on her stomach. Chris felt a soft flutter pushing against his hand from Stephanie's stomach. "Feel it?"

"Yes, I think it's Morse code," Chris said, "baby 1a thinks that Shawn is definitely a skeeve and that…Daddy should beat him up."

"Shove it," Stephanie said.

"I'm just repeating what the baby is telling me," Chris said, then leaning down to talk to her stomach. "Don't worry, kiddo, Daddy will avenge Mommy's honor. You don't have to worry about it."

Chris looked up at wickedly at Stephanie and she just stared at him. She couldn't ask for a better person to raise her children with. She could see the love inside his eyes whenever the babies were kicking or whenever he was speaking to her stomach or trying to strap on headphones around her belly so the kids could listen to his music. She feared, at first, that he wouldn't be as excited as she was and after finding out they were twins, she was even more frightened that he would think it too much, but he never did. He loved these kids as much as she did and she couldn't ask for anything more.

She couldn't ask for anyone better.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, I'm so glad that the story isn't confusing for anyone and that you all seem to be liking it. Anyways, I have a poll up on my profile page here on the site asking what kind of twins you'd want Chris and Stephanie to have. I'm torn between a couple choices so the votes actually really help so if you want, go vote for one of the options! Anyways, hope you enjoy the chapter and reviews are love. :)

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"_I love my daughter and I will support her in everything and anything that she does, within reason of course, and I do support her with this. I guess, though, when you picture your daughter having her first child…or children as the case may be, you just kind of want that ideal for her. Chris is a good man though, I think, I hope rather. I've obviously known him for some time now, I just don't know how he will be with my daughter."_

"_Vince, do you have any thoughts?" Amy asked the patriarch of the McMahon family and the president of the WWE._

"_The only thing Chris has to do right is treat Stephanie and the kids well, that's all I ask of him."_

"_Do you think that he was trying to make a power move here?"_

"_No," Linda said, "we've seen men who have tried to use our daughter for her last name, more often than either of us care for and Chris isn't like that."_

"_We _hope_ he's not like that," Vince said, patting Linda's hand, "but we're still assessing the situation. We don't know the circumstances under which Stephanie became pregnant and it's none of our business, but she trusts Chris and so we're trusting him, but if he does anything to hurt our daughter or grandchildren, then he's going to have to face me."_

"_Vince, we don't know that he's even doing anything," she told her husband, then smiled towards the camera, "we're willing to give him the benefit of the doubt."_

"Welcome," Stephanie said, trying to sound exuberant for the cameras, pulling the door open for her parents on the other side. She gave a smile towards the camera as her parents walked in and she closed the door behind them. In actuality, her lower back was aching something fierce and her feet were hurting as well, but she had to keep her best face forward for the cameras. She didn't want to look like an ugly, fat pregnant woman for all the world to see. "It's so good to see you."

"It's good to see you, sweetheart," Linda said, kissing Stephanie's cheek and then holding a bottle of sparkling cider and a cake. "I had the chef whip up the cake and I thought that since you can't drink because of the babies that we'd bring sparkling cider."

"Thanks, Mom, thank you for being so thoughtful," she said and then she joked, "I can probably finish off this entire cake by myself though. I swear, I think these kids are going to be professional eaters because all I want to do all the time is eat."

"I was the same way with you," Linda said, looping her arm through her daughter's, "I thought I was going to gain 100 pounds. The doctor kept telling me, 'oh, it's okay, you're pregnant, you're supposed to gain weight.' I don't think they knew as much back then as they do now."

"Probably not," Stephanie said, "at my next appointment we're going to find out just what's in there."

"I can't wait for that," Linda said, "I really want to know what you're going to be having."

"Believe me, so do I," Stephanie laughed, rubbing her stomach a little with her free hand.

"_Have you two had any discussions about what you might want?" Amy asked Chris and Stephanie, who were sitting together on the loveseat for this particular interview. Chris and Stephanie looked at each other a moment and then started laughing like they had some inside joke._

"_When we first found out we were having twins," Chris said, "we had this huge discussion. First of all, we were shocked, completely. I go with Stephanie to the doctor's appointments-"_

"_He's really good about that," Stephanie said, throwing Chris a grateful smile. "He's been to every single one and even sits with me during the gross examination stuff. He actually schedules around the appointments so he's there for every one."_

"_Shut up," Chris stage whispered to her as he blushed._

"_I like it," she told him quietly as the camera captured their intimate moment, "it's reassuring having someone there sharing it with you."_

"_Anyways," Chris cleared his throat and tried to unclog the embarrassment currently stuck inside, "we were totally shocked because the first ultrasound she had didn't really pick up the second baby so for a whole three weeks, we just thought about how great it was that our one baby was healthy."_

"_So then we had the second sonogram and the doctor is looking at the monitor and apparently at first, baby number one was blocking baby number two, but then the doctor was able to see that there were two heartbeats and so we were having twins."_

"_It was a surreal moment. I had just gotten used to the idea of being a father, right," Chris said, chuckling at how he'd been that day, "and suddenly this doctor, who for a second I believed was a quack because we'd been told we had _a_ healthy baby, is now suddenly telling us there was this other one we didn't know about and it's kind of like, okay, well now there's another one I'm going to worry about for the rest of my life."_

"_Once we got over the shock though, the idea settled and we both liked it."_

"_Two is always better than one…except in competitions," Chris said, then furrowed his brow, "not that our kids are going to be competitive with each other, I just won't have it."_

"_So any preferences then?" Amy prompted them back to the original question even though she thought them learning about the twins was a good story to include somewhere._

"_Chris wanted two boys," Stephanie answered, looking over at Chris, who gave a careless shrug._

"_I just think that if I have two sons, it'll be cool, they can follow in the old man's footsteps."_

"_And tell them what you told me about two little girls," Stephanie nudged him in the shoulder._

"_No," he said, that blush creeping up on him. _

"_Come on," Stephanie said, but Chris kept shaking his head, "okay, I'm telling, Chris said that he thought two little girls would be the end of him because he couldn't possibly handle all that cute and that they'd be Daddy's little girls and he would be so protective of them."_

"_Stephanie," he whined._

"_It's cute," Stephanie said, "I think it'd be kind of cool to have one of each though."_

"_It would certainly help because my step-mom has been buying clothes for both boys and girls and it'd be nice if we could use them both," Chris said, "I mean, the onesies, I don't care about the color…man, who cares if you dress a boy up in pink or a girl in blue, stupid colors, but I might have a problem putting my sons in dresses."_

"_See how he says sons?" Stephanie jerked a finger at him. "I kind of hope now that we have two girls."_

"_I hate you."_

"Vince, Linda, hello," Chris said politely, shaking Vince's hand and giving Linda a short hug.

"Are you all settled in?" Linda asked kindly. Even though it was even odder that Stephanie and Chris were living together and not together, she did like the man. He was always respectful towards them and even in business, he was a man who spoke his mind and stuck to his principles; she liked men like that. He also treated Stephanie well and in this strange situation, it was all she could really hope for.

"Kind of," Chris said, "I've got a ton of furniture that I brought up and I know the place is really big, but it's not big enough for all our furniture so most of it is out in the garage right now and we're going to kind of joint decorate the house, see what things we want to keep and the rest we'll give to charity."

"You should just do the whole house over," Linda said, "with kids, you're going to have to child-proof everything and maybe you should be looking at more practical furniture."

"Mom, I think we've got it covered," Stephanie said.

"So Chris, how is impending fatherhood treating you?" Vince asked, clapping Chris on the shoulder as they walked into the living room. Stephanie and Linda were heading into the kitchen to put the cake away and Stephanie gave Chris a sympathetic glance before leaving the men-folk to their discussion.

"Um, so far so good," Chris answered, trying not to get nervous. He always felt under harsh scrutiny with Stephanie's parents, but with Vince especially. He knew Vince saw him simply as the guy who knocked up his daughter, but didn't love her or want her, which couldn't be further from the truth. He loved Stephanie in his own way. It may not be in the traditional sense, but he _did_ love her. He tended to think that Vince was just worried that he would run out on Stephanie, but that was never the case. He and Stephanie made the decision.

He thought back to that night briefly. It had just been one of those things, a moment where the world seems to crash into you at full force and propels you towards someone. Stephanie had been expressing the desire for children and something inside of him just…wanted to offer. At first, he'd intended for it to be the traditional way that a woman becomes pregnant without sex, through artificial insemination with his…donation. But that night, they'd just been there and they were talking and like he said, the word just seemed to crash at them and suddenly, they were together and they'd made the conscious decision and it had turned out better than either had expected.

"Are you nervous? These are your first children, right?" He knew that Vince only had the best of intentions and this was his not-so-subtle way of trying to get information from Chris in regards to his past.

He took it all in stride though and nodded, "These are my first children, yes, and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't really nervous because I kind of am, I mean, you're a father, it must have been pretty nerve-racking with Shane, right?"

"Of course," Vince nodded. "I just want to make sure that my daughter is happy."

"I'm looking after her."

"Yes, looking after her, but you don't love her."

He really wished people would stop misinterpreting their relationship. "We're not strangers, Vince, Stephanie is one of my best friends and has been for quite some time now. How we chose to live our lives is not normal, we get that, but I love your daughter."

"But you're not in love with her and that's the difference," Vince said and Chris could sense this conversation taking a turn and he wanted to desperately curb it, but he wasn't really able to and he knew that Vince, like his daughter, would talk about what he wanted when he wanted and Chris could only hang on for dear life. It didn't help that the camera was right in their faces, capturing, for all the world to see, his dressing down by Vince. He just hoped the editors would be kind in postproduction.

"I fail to see…"

"I just worry about my grandchildren being confused," Vince said and Chris knew that he was trying not to get angry or too involved, though knowing the McMahons like he did, they wanted to get involved.

"I don't understand why they'd be confused."

"Because you're not together. Here they are, in school someday, and everyone's parents have been married and together and what are they going to say? That their parents just decided to have them on a whim and they're _friends_."

"Vince, are you aware of the familial situations in this country?" Chris asked. "There are a million different types of families, divorced, married, gay, lesbian, grandparents raising kids, single mothers, single fathers, there is no real definition of family anymore. Stephanie and I plan to provide all the love in the world to them and they're going to be better off for that love not because they have a traditional family."

"_I just think Vince is from a different era," Chris pondered. "Plus, I know that if Stephanie has two girls or one girl that I'm going to be that guy. I'm going to be the Vince if my daughter ever decides to have a man's baby that she's not with. You think, oh yeah, I'll be supportive, but you can't say and I know where he's coming from."_

"_Do you feel like your relationship with Stephanie is misunderstood?"_

"_Absolutely," Chris nodded. "I think everyone thinks that we just got drunk one night, but it wasn't like that, I'm not like that. I would never screw my best friend because I was drunk. I wouldn't be that guy with her. Even before she was carrying our kids, I never would have disrespected her and our friendship like that."_

"Everyone doing okay in here?" Stephanie asked, coming back out, "dinner is looking good and should be ready in about ten minutes, how goes it in here?"

"It's okay," Chris answered, knowing she was directing the question at him. Stephanie sent him a look and he nodded. It really was okay. He could handle her family, all the looks, stares from everyone. He could handle it all, everything and everyone who looked at them strange, they didn't matter to him.

The only thing that mattered to him was his family.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Thanks for the reviews and thanks to everyone who voted in the poll; there was a VERY clear winner and you'll find out what it was if you keep reading. Enjoy, review if you feel inclined. :)

* * *

"_The worst part about pregnancy? Wow, there are a lot of worst parts."_

_Chris laughed from beside her and she glared at him, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't laugh, but isn't she awesome? I mean, she doesn't sugarcoat it. I've never been around a hoard of pregnant women, but they always seem to be all glowing and I don't know, I think it's refreshing that Stephanie is so honest about what's going on."_

"_Thanks?" Stephanie said, giving the camera a look. "Anyways, I think the worst part about the pregnancy is the weight gain and the unwieldy stomach issue."_

"_The unwieldy stomach issue?" Amy asked as Chris snickered._

"_Since I'm having twins, I'm bigger since I have to accommodate the both of them in there. The doctor said that twins usually birth smaller than a single child, but that there's still two kids in there so the room is limited and as you can see, I definitely look like I'm farther along than five months-"_

"_I think she looks fantastic if my opinion counts for anything," Chris interjected. "And I'm not just saying that because those are my kids in there. I think even if they wouldn't I'd be like, 'that is one hot pregnant woman.'"_

"_Stop!" Stephanie blushed, "but the stomach thing is that my stomach is _huge_ so I'm constantly bumping into things with it or losing my balance when I stand up because I'm just not used to having so much weight in the front…not a word, Chris, about my chest!"_

_Chris gave a shocked look, "I wasn't going to!"_

"_No, you were, I know you," she told him, shaking her head at the camera. "But that's definitely the worst part. I mean, there are other really crappy things, the sore feet and back, the heartburn, the constant need to pee, but the weight and the stomach top them all."_

Chris unpacked his duffel bag in the locker room at the show. He looked up at the camera and addressed it, "So this is my daily routine for the shows, just got here, unpacking the stuff in my bad. I like to take everything out so I can see it and then just get changed really quickly before my match. Now that I'm not wearing pants, I don't like to walk around in just my briefs, it's just odd to me."

"Hey!" Randy said from behind him, dressed in a t-shirt and his briefs.

"Get a load of this guy, perfect example, walking around in his underwear," Chris stage-whispered, making Randy flip him off (something they'd have to blur in postproduction). "People get really testy around here."

"Yeah, because you're a jerk," Randy said, coming over and acknowledging the cameras with a slight nod. "So these are the reality show thing that's following you and Stephanie?"

"No, I just decided I needed an entourage," Chris told him, "of course this is the film crew. Today is 'Take your film crew to work' day."

"Very funny," Chris said, "so where's Steph? Is she here tonight? I've heard that she's huge and I really want to see her."

"Do not make fun of the mother of my children," Chris threatened jokingly.

"Everyone loves this guy around here," Cena stepped in front of the camera, wrapping his arm around Chris briefly and mugging for the camera.

"Seriously, dude, like you don't get enough screen time on Raw, you have to try and steal the spotlight on my reality show too?" Chris asked as Cena walked out of the picture, chuckling. "That's John Cena, the biggest famewhore."

"Hell yeah I am!" Cena called out.

"It's true though," Randy said, pretending to be serious and looking at the camera, "everyone loves this guy, but not half as much as we all love Stephanie. She's amazing…I just sounded like I wanted to get into her pants, didn't I?"

"Even Stephanie is having a hard time getting into her pants," Chris said, then did a little drum solo to highlight his joke. "Don't listen to them, not everyone likes me around here."

"_I love the WWE. I know I took a break, but I love it there. It's my home away from home. I know I say this a lot in all my interviews, but the two things I wanted to be when I was younger were a wrestler and a rock star. I'm blessed to be both and I think the time away from the company really helped me understand that I can do what I want and everything that I want. But coming back has never been regretful. But I do know that not everyone was jazzed over my return. I know that I have enemies in that locker room."_

"_You do seem fairly popular backstage though," Amy told him._

_Chris laughed, "Yeah, I guess you can say that, but I think I've always been a person who gets along with everyone, at least I try to get along with everyone. There are just some people that I'm not naturally inclined to get along with and that's okay. I'm not naïve enough to believe that I can get everyone to like me."_

"_Did you and Stephanie get along from the beginning?"_

"_Yes, Stephanie is one of the warmest people I've ever seen. She loves talking to people, interacting with people and she's a sweetheart. I could not have asked for someone better to enter my life."_

"_Are there any people in particular that you don't get along with?"_

"_Of course, but I'm not about to get into that," Chris smirked. "I'm tactful enough not to mention them."_

"So this is me walking down the hallway," Chris said, grinning cheesily as he pretended like the hallway was the most interesting thing in the universe. "I have a match tonight. It's going to be a singles match, me against Edge or Adam if you prefer. It's kind of like a grudge match type thing. I'm going to go talk to him. Then I will have my match and then I will fly home tomorrow and Steph will pick me up and we will go to the doctor's appointment immediately after that."

"_My doctor said she doesn't have a big problem with me traveling, but that she didn't advise it. Because there's twins, there's a higher risk for giving birth prematurely and I just thought with all the flying I'd be doing and all the stress I'd be dealing with, with traveling and being at the shows, it might not be the best thing for me at this point so I made the decision to work from home for now."_

"_Do you miss the shows?"_

"_There's always that adrenaline-like buzz that floats through the arena when you're at the show. Everything is so hectic and I like that feeling, I always have, it's why I originally wanted an on-screen role. I like the buzz. But there's another buzz that I have now and it's my kids and I'm doing what's best for them."_

"_Do you wish that Chris was around more?"_

"_In some ways, yes, in some ways no. Sometimes…pregnancy, I guess your first one, is a lot intimidating. There are some times when he's on the road that I wish he was here for the support, but he's a wrestler, I get that he has to go out there and do his job, I'm also his boss so I doubly know this."_

"_What about his other commitments like Fozzy?"_

"_He's actually cut back a lot on that for right now," Stephanie smiled secretly. "He still does the occasional Fozzy thing and everything and I don't begrudge him that because when I _do_ need him, he's always here and that's what makes him so special to me."_

"Your match was great," Stephanie said, "even though you botched that one move, you know what I'm talking about so I'll leave it at that."

He shook his head and turned to the backseat, "Normally, I would hate someone pointing out something I already know happened, but with her, I don't mind it so much."

Stephanie rolled her eyes, "Are you glad to be home?"

"I'm excited to be home," he told her, nearly bouncing in his seat, "I'm so ready to find out what's in there. We can finally start doing up the nursery appropriately."

"Which means I can go shopping," Stephanie said, her eyes lighting up as Chris groaned. "Oh come on, you know you're excited about shopping for our children."

"I'm going to take some time to get used to whatever's in there. If we're having two girls, I think I'll just go home and curl up in bed and try to think of a world where nobody will ever hit on my daughters. I'm hoping that if there are two girls in there, or hell, one girl in there, that there will be trips to the moon so I can send her there and keep her away from any guys who might want her…or girls if that's her thing."

"So open-minded and yet protective," Stephanie laughed. "I really don't feel like it's two boys though."

"You can tell?"

"I don't know, I just figure if there were two boys in there, they would be more active."

"Just because they're boys doesn't mean they're playing hockey in there with your spleen or something," Chris joked. The both of them nearly forgot there was a camera and sound guy in the backseat of the car. They were just talking with one another about their excitement.

"I know," she stuck her tongue out a little, "but I just feel like I would know if it were two boys."

"Do they feel like two girls, do you feel like they're having tea parties in there?"

"Shut up," she told him. They drove in relative silence before they arrived at Stephanie's doctor. The film crew didn't follow them into room, letting them have their privacy for that part of the appointment. They were allowed to go in when Stephanie was having her ultrasound, but before that, Stephanie didn't want them in there for the technical part of the appointment.

Stephanie always got a little bit nervous whenever she went to the doctor. She couldn't ever truly tell what was going on in her body so to not know what was in there, the anticipation while the doctor checked her out, it was a little nerve-racking. The doctor gave her and the babies the all clear though and she threw a look at Chris, who also looked relieved. He squeezed her hand as he stood up to go tell the film crew that they could come in for the ultrasound. They all came into the now slightly cramped room as the doctor wheeled the ultrasound machine.

"In editing, can you edit out the stretch marks," Stephanie joked as she leaned her head back to look at the cameraman, who laughed and nodded like he could have them do that. "Good."

The doctor squirted the jelly on her stomach and brought the wand up and Stephanie sent an anxious glance to Chris, who was leaning with his arm on the side of the table she was lying on, staring at the screen. The most luminous smile came over his face when he saw the two blobs on the fuzzy screen in front of him. The twins were big enough now that they could distinguish them without being told and they could both see that the babies were moving around spastically in the small space they were sharing.

"Those are my kids," Chris glanced back at the camera, grinning widely and looking so incredibly proud before he turned back to watch the screen rapturously.

"_Our_ kids," Stephanie amended.

"Oh yeah, our kids," Chris said.

"Okay," Dr. Silver said as he moved the wand around Stephanie's stomach. He tilted his head a little bit and moved the wand slightly slower on her swollen stomach. Then he pointed to the baby on the right side of the screen. "Okay, so that one right there is a boy."

"Yes!" Chris fist pumped. "I've got a son! Chris Junior right there, not literally, I don't want a junior, but you know what I mean."

"I think everyone gets it," Stephanie told him quietly, but she was beaming too. "We get to have at least one little boy. That's so exciting, he's going to be a wrestler, I know it."

"And let's see if this other one will let us know what they are," Dr. Silver moved the wand completely to the other side of her stomach. "They don't want to give us a clear view, they're a little shy, it seems." He pressed the wand against her stomach a little firmer, which prompted the baby inside to move a little bit. "There we go, the sex of baby number two is…congratulations, you've got a girl."

Stephanie's grin widened and then she giggled, "I knew it."

"You did not," Chris said, but he groaned slightly. "Okay, I can deal with one daughter. I can deal with one."

"_So how are you two now that you've had the news sink in for a few hours?"_

"_Just as excited," Stephanie said, "at least speaking for myself. I just can't believe we know what we're having now. It's surreal because when you don't know the sexes of the babies, it's like, I don't know, it's real, but it's not like they're people. They're like these foreign objects floating and bumping around in my stomach. But now, it's like, there's a boy and there's a girl and they're ours and I can't wait to meet them and hold them."_

"_Chris?"_

"_I'm still processing," he said, but it wasn't a bad kind of processing, it was more like he felt in awe. "I agree with Stephanie that they don't seem completely real until you know what you're having. We could plan and plan everything, but it was still like, there was a shroud of mystery around the babies. Now they are something and we get to plan for them, for real this time."_

"_Do you guys have any names planned?"_

"_Not really, no," Stephanie answered, "we wanted to wait until we knew for sure what we were having and then we'd start discussing names. I'm hoping this guy doesn't have any crazy names."_

"_I don't, although Metallica for a girl…"_

"_Yeah, veto right there," she joked. "We'll figure it out."_

"_Yeah, we'll figure it out. All that matters is that we get a healthy little boy and a healthy little girl out of the deal." Stephanie looked at Chris with a sense of adoration. She grabbed his hand and held it in hers. Then she looked at the camera and nodded._

"_Yes, that's all that matters."_


	5. Chapter 5

"Are you happy to be here tonight?"

"Of course," Stephanie said, looping her arm through Chris's as they walked. "I'm just glad the show was close enough to come tonight. I've missed it around here."

"It's missed you," Chris told her affectionately. "I think you still have your fingerprints all over the place though."

"I _do_ still work here," she said, pressing her hand to her stomach. "I just work from home. But man, I have missed this buzz around here. There's really nothing like it, but I guess for the people watching this, they kind of get it since they're probably fans since they have this channel, unless we somehow become wildly popular."

"Speak for yourself," Chris interjected with a smarmy-looking smile. "Some of us were _already_ wildly popular even before this show airs. Maybe you need it to boost your popularity and the kids have none so they might need the boost."

"I just hope neither one of these two inherit any of _that_," Stephanie threw her thumb in Chris's direction. "I don't think I could handle three egos in my house."

"Excuse me, look who's talking," Chris said as they turned into their private locker room for the evening, the cameras following them inside. "She acts like she's just the most perfect person the planet, but I know that's not true."

"Do you really want to get on the bad side of the woman carrying your _two_ children?" Stephanie asked jokingly. "Because if I were a betting woman, I wouldn't take that bet, just a thought, you know."

"Duly noted," Chris made a face towards the camera. "Okay, I've got to pick up a schedule and a script, you going to be okay here by yourself?"

"Yeah, because I'm by myself with all the cameras pretty much up my nose," Stephanie gestured towards the cameramen, who looked around their camera and made a face at her. "Not like I don't appreciate the company, guys, but seriously, you don't need to get up in my face."

"Well, I'll see you later then," Chris gave her a short wave and then left the room. No cameras followed him and instead focused on Stephanie, who wasn't doing anything at the moment.

"I'm guessing this shot is going to make the cutting room floor," she said as she examined her nails. "I'm not really doing anything, guys, you could cut out the cameras and go get something to eat or something. I'm not going to spontaneously combust if you don't have the cameras on me and I swear I'm not really a figment of your imagination."

"We're at the show, we have to," Greg, one of the cameramen told her. "Just in case."

"Just in case what? I'm not about to go into labor, I'm barely six months pregnant, though I keep having people ask me when the babies are due because I'm so big. It's hard not to be self-conscious a little, don't film this, great, now everyone is going to know that I'm all self-conscious."

"We won't show it."

"Thank you," she said, "I'm kind of thirsty, I guess since you guys have to film my every move that I'll go get something to drink. Not that any one of you would actually help me, right?" Nobody responded, "That's what I thought."

"_What have people's perceptions been about the babies?"_

"_Like people in general?" Stephanie asked._

"_No, like the people in the company, the people you interact with on a daily basis at work. Have they said anything, done anything?"_

"_I think they know better," Stephanie chuckled. "I mean, when you're the boss's daughter, you're afforded some luxury, like not being talked about to my face or anywhere I can hear. I'm not entirely sure what people are saying since I'm not around much, but I have to imagine they've said stuff about us behind our backs. It's the nature of the business, any business really. I dare you to find anywhere in the country where people work and don't gossip."_

"_What kind of things do you think they're saying?"_

"_Hopefully nothing against my kids. They can talk about Chris and me all they want, I don't really care about that, but my kids are innocent in all of this. I guess they'd be talking about how Chris and I aren't together and how we insist that it wasn't some drunken one night stand, but that it probably was, but that's our business so it's no business of theirs."_

"This is catering," Stephanie outstretched her arms in both directions. "I'm not sure if Chris took you here when you came to work with him, but this is probably the hub of activity before shows. You can see it right now with everyone pretty much in here. It's a place where people can talk and hang out and eat and so it draws everyone in. During shows, it's not a ghost town, but pretty close because everyone is doing something else."

Stephanie walked over to the big bucket of ice that held the water bottles. She plucked one out and then opened it. Before she could even get one sip, the Bellas and Barbie came up to her and nearly squealed in her ear.

"Oh my God, Stephanie, you look beautiful!" Nikki said.

"Um, thank you," Stephanie said slowly, looking at the cameras.

"I mean, you've got that like pregnant woman glow," Brie added, finishing her twin sister's thought. "You just look really good. Chris has been telling everyone that you're having a little boy and a little girl, that's so exciting."

When it came to her kids, Stephanie couldn't help herself. She and Chris were so excited now that they knew what they were having. It was like they became something tangible and names could now be freely discussed (though they hadn't touched extensively on the name issue yet). She was so proud of her babies and they hadn't even been born yet. She just hoped she didn't become one of those overbearing parents that her kids ended up hating.

"Thanks, it is pretty exciting. So Chris has been going around telling everyone?" Stephanie couldn't keep the smile off her face. She knew Chris was excited, but she like hearing about things like this.

She would never confess this to the cameras or to Chris, but she'd be remiss if she didn't sometimes fear that things would get too overwhelming for Chris. She knew that it was a conscious choice on his part to take the chance that night, that he said he would deal with what happened, would be there for her, but saying and doing are two totally different things. She'd been especially scared after the revelation of twins. It was one thing to have one child together, but then to have two thrust upon them, just like that. Chris had proven her wrong time and time again, but sometimes she wondered if the other shoe would drop.

She and Chris were both technically single and Chris was eventually going to want to be with someone and with two kids with another woman, would that make things difficult. Would he decide that his own happiness was more important and leave her with two children? She knew everyone saw this relatively ideal picture they put out, but there were still fears there, not that she would ever voice these fears.

"Yes," Barbie laughed, "I don't think anyone hasn't heard about it. He keeps going around announcing it to people who have already heard it, but it's endearing."

"I think he's more excited for the boy and worried about the girl," Stephanie joked, feeling a little more at ease.

"Well, he shouldn't, boys get into trouble too," Nikki said. "I bet Chris is going to be adorable with a little girl. Have you guys thought of any names yet?"

"Not really, no," Stephanie said, "I guess we're just waiting a little bit, coming up with names before we really discuss what we want to name them."

"You should let us throw you a baby shower," Barbie told her. "At least with the divas. We can do everything and hold it here when we're around or something, I mean, you can still travel, right?"

"Yeah, sort of, not very far though," she said. She was touched by the gesture, but, "I don't really need one though. It's really sweet of you to offer, but Chris and I-"

"It doesn't have to be because you need to get stuff or anything," Barbie said, "just because we like you and Chris and you're having twins, hey, it could be for anyone who wants to come, it could be open to everyone. Maybe we can tell everyone to just buy diapers, that's what my sister did for her second child. She already had everything she needed for the baby, but you can never have too many diapers and with you guys having twins, you'll need double the diapers."

"You guys…"

"We're going to do it," Brie nodded. "All you have to do is show up."

"Thank you," Stephanie said, feeling special right then. She knew that it could be considered sucking up because she was the boss, but they did seem genuine in their intentions and it was something nice to do and she couldn't begrudge them if they wanted to do something nice. Barbie was right too, they could never have enough diapers for the babies so at the very least, they'd get a lot of those and she'd read that the first couple weeks you're pretty much holed up in the house anyways and with twins, it must be even worse. It'd be nice not to have to worry about one thing during that time.

"Great," all three of them said in unison, obviously excited over the prospect of throwing a party. They all hugged Stephanie and she shrugged at the cameras when they were gone.

"_I think it's really cool they want to hold a party," Chris said as he looked at Stephanie. "It's sweet of them."_

_"It is, I agree," Stephanie nodded. "I just don't know when they plan on having it because I'm not real big on the traveling thing right now."_

"_Even if you can't go, I can go in your place," he told with a wink._

"_Don't you think that's kind of weird?" she laughed. "I mean, there you are, pretending to be me or something, cooing over baby things?"_

"_I can do that, they're my babies too," he patted her stomach. "Man, I wish they would kick you harder though. I want to feel them more."_

"_They don't have a lot of room so they can't move that much."_

"_Well, they should anyways."_

"_My insides are thankful that they don't. I can't wait for them to get out of there even though I know that I still have months left, but still, my stomach feels like a bowling ball is sitting in it. Wait, how did we get so far off-topic?"_

"_I'm not sure," Chris laughed, "but yes, a party would be great."_

Stephanie walked back down the hallway and saw Chris talking to a woman he didn't know. She was young, younger than Stephanie it seemed and she was pretty. Stephanie didn't dwell on it because the cameras were there and so she just turned and walked back to her locker room for the evening, drinking her water and sitting around. "Really, you guys, I'm not going to be doing anything, you can turn the cameras off and take a break, you must be hungry, right?"

"I am a little hungry," Barney said.

"Go get food," she insisted, "I swear, if anything even remotely interesting happens, then I'll recreate it when you get back, I promise."

"Okay, but don't do anything while we're gone," Greg said.

"Cross my heart and hope to die," she told them and watched as they left. It was only a few minutes later that Chris came back in, his head down and reading the script in his hand. "Hey there."

"Oh hey," he said, looking up at her. "I was just reading this promo they wrote for Ted DiBiase, hilarious. I don't even know who comes up with this…unless it was you, in which case, brilliant."

"No, not me," she said, then furrowed her brow, "Chris, you know, if you want to date you can. We're not together so you can go out with whomever you want."

"Yeah, I know, what's that got to do with anything?" he asked.

"She's really pretty."

"Who is really pretty?" he wondered confusedly.

"That girl you were talking to just now, I went to get water and saw you talking and she's really pretty and if you want to go out with someone, I won't be angry with you or upset or anything," she told him and she was being mostly truthful. Part of her hated him because he could go out and not look like he swallowed a beach ball. Evidence of their coupling was written all over her.

"You mean…the girl that was asking where she could find the bathroom?" Chris laughed.

"Oh," Stephanie said awkwardly, then laughed at herself. "I'm sorry, I just…I figured…I don't know, you haven't been out with anyone since before we were even together and I just thought maybe you were…I don't know, needing…um, stuff."

"Where are the cameras when you need them?" Chris kidded. "The one time Stephanie McMahon could be totally rendered speechless, this is something that needs to be documented."

"Shut up, I'm just looking out for your well-being."

"My well-being is well looked after, thank you."

"_Have you thought about dating?"_

"_I guess, but right now, I really don't feel like it," Chris interviewed. "I don't know, I guess it would make me feel bad because Stephanie would be stuck at home with the babies and everything. It just feels selfish."_

"_She doesn't seem to mind though, she's said that she doesn't mind if you did."_

"_I mind though," Chris shrugged. "I don't know, it just doesn't feel right, right now. Maybe after the babies come or something, but then I'll probably be too busy…someday, I guess."_

"_Have you ever entertained the thought of you and Stephanie together?"_

_Chris chuckled, "Don't tell her, but occasionally it makes sense, what with us having a baby. But then, getting together just because we have kids, that's not the way I want to live or the way either one of us deserves to live."_

"_So you're absolutely ruling out the idea of you and Stephanie."_

"_Well, I guess I am."_


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thanks for the reviews and everything, hope you enjoy the chapter, review if you please. :)

* * *

"_So what kinds of things do you like to do on your days off?"_

"_She likes to work," Chris joked, nodding his head towards Stephanie. "Her idea of fun is to work some more."_

"_I work because I have nothing better to do when I'm stuck at home with these two," she pointed down to her stomach._

"_When you have the babies, how much time are you taking off?" Amy asked._

"_Are you kidding me? I think Stephanie is going to bring work with her in the delivery room," Chris said and Stephanie shoved at his shoulder while he laughed. She glared at him and he gave her a cheesy grin._

"_I am not," Stephanie told him then turned towards the camera. "I am not. Anyways, I'll probably take a couple of weeks off from doing anything, just letting my team work and they'll do a good job I'm sure of it. Then after a couple weeks, I'll just work from home for a while. Chris is going to take a couple weeks off too to be with me and the kids."_

"_Yeah," Chris beamed. "We've got it planned out pretty much. I'll probably do an injury angle or something where I don't want to be at the shows and I'll just do video segments taped from Titan or something like that. I want to be here for at least the first couple of weeks. Everyone says that's a really important time, plus, with Stephanie having twins, I would feel horrible leaving her here by herself with two newborns."_

"_Aren't I a lucky girl?" Stephanie said, pinching Chris's cheek. "I've got someone who is willing to stay at home for me."_

"_My body is thanking you too because I'm going to need some rest because wrestling is hard and with the soreness and the babies, yeah, it's going to be nice to get a couple weeks off," Chris said. "More than anything though, I can't wait to meet Thing 1 and Thing 2."_

"_Dr. Suess, I like it," Stephanie said. "We're just hoping to survive those first couple weeks."_

"God, it's so nice not to have those cameras around for a couple days," Stephanie said as she grabbed some juice from the fridge. She grabbed some grape juice and some orange juice and then mixed it together. She'd been craving the drink for an hour, but they didn't have grape juice so Chris had to go out and get her some.

"I know what you mean, I just feel like I always have to be interesting," he said, perching on the stool as he watched the purple and orange juice mix into a truly unappetizing color. "Does that really taste good? It looks disgusting."

"It's delicious," she held out the glass to him and he shook his head. "Go on, try it!"

"No way, it probably tastes gross to everyone who doesn't have two kids in their stomach," he said, trying to back away from her.

"Try it, just try it, one sip," she laughed, leaning over the counter as much as she could with her stomach being as big as it was, even though she was only just over five months along. The twins were definitely making it known that there were two of them in there. If she had one more person coming up to her and asking her if she was due in a few weeks, she was going to slap them. Her doctor said that she was going to be bigger because there were two of them, but this was getting ridiculous.

"Stephanie, stop it!" he laughed as he leaned back on the stool.

"One sip, that's all I'm asking, it's just juice," she told him, rubbing her stomach, "yummy, yummy juice."

"You're so gross!" he said, then leaned back so far that the stool gave way and he landed with a thud on his back on the ground. Stephanie gasped for a moment, her jaw dropping as she put her glass down and walked quickly around the counter. She slowly knelt down next to Chris.

"Oh my God, Chris, are you okay? Is your back okay, did you hit your head?" Stephanie said, running her fingers through Chris's hair. She tried to check him for a concussion, but he just started laughing and covering his face. Stephanie just stared at him for a moment, then she pushed at him. "You're a jerk."

"You're the one that made me fall down!" he argued, still laughing as he sat up. He grabbed at his back and rubbed it a little from where his tailbone had taken the brunt of his fall. "I've taken worse bumps in the ring."

"But you're rubbing your back," she said. "Come on, to the living room, I'll give you a massage."

"Shouldn't I be the one giving you a massage?" Chris asked. "You know, leave it to the day when the cameras aren't around for something hilarious to happen."

"Yeah, like I'm sure you want everyone to see you falling off a stool like an idiot," Stephanie said, trying to get up, but finding she was having a hard time. Chris got to his feet and then leaned down to give Stephanie a hand. She grabbed it and he pulled her to her feet. She kept her hand in his as she dragged him to the living room. She nearly threw him on the couch, "Sit."

"You really don't have to, Steph," he said, "I'll be fine. Like I said, I've taken worse. Plus, your back has to be hurting, right?"

"Actually, I'm good today," she told him, patting her stomach, "Thing 1 and Thing 2 are behaving like the good, little children they're going to be."

"You're awfully optimistic," he told her as she sat down behind him. She tugged at his shirt and he rolled his eyes as he lifted it off. "What makes you think you're going to have two angel children? With us as parents, you figure they're going to be a little on the wild side?"

"I'm trying to ignore that part," she said as she placed her left hand on his shoulder while she placed her right hand on his lower back, pressing against his warm skin. "I figure if I keep saying they'll be good kids, we'll get lucky and have the best kids ever."

"They're going to be that anyways," he said. "You know, we should probably start thinking of names. I know that we said if we had two boys that we could each name one and same with two girls, but we didn't ever really discuss the possibility of a boy and a girl, should we be traditional and you get the girl, I get the boy?"

"Don't you think we should wait to have this discussion when the cameras are here? I think they would really like to record this," Stephanie pointed out. "Amy is always asking us about names, I guess to get the whole scoop on it."

"Yeah, I know, but I'm not going to censor myself because the cameras aren't here, oh God, that spot right there is awesome," Chris groaned as Stephanie hit a sensitive spot. She kneaded the skin harder. "I want to discuss kid names and that's what we're going to do. Have you thought of any girls' names yet?"

"Yes, I have one I really want actually, I was just hoping you would let me name the girl," Stephanie said and Chris laughed, "shut up, it's not cliché, I know what you're thinking, I just thought…well, I guess I thought I'd be having two girls and so I already had a name ready.'

"So if we had two boys, you would've just been like, 'let's name them whatever, I don't care!' is that how you would have been?"

"No, I would've thought a great name, do you have any girls' names?"

"No, because I was hoping for two boys," Chris admitting and Stephanie pinched his shoulder with her left hand, "ouch, don't do that! I'm sorry, I told you, girls scare me. I don't want to have to look after a girl because there are boys in this world who will see my daughter as…I don't even want to finish that sentence. Baby girl, do you hear me, you are not dating anyone!"

"Oh, that's going to help," Stephanie said, "So, okay, what name do you want for a boy then? Remember, this kid is half mine so I get to veto if I so choose."

"Okay, well, I kind of wanted the name, Brant Campbell Irvine," Chris said, looking over his shoulder at her as she mulled it over. He really hoped she liked it because it had been stewing in his brain for years now. He'd just needed the kid to name.

"Campbell, what's that from?" Stephanie asked. "A family name?"

Chris turned back around to hide his blush, his ears burning because he didn't want her to think he was stupid, "Um, it's for Bruce Campbell, you know, from _Evil Dead_. I really like those movies."

Stephanie laughed, "I like the name, Brant Irvine, I can get used to that, Brant, this is my son, Brant. I like it, I like it, we can go with that one, it's cute and it's not something you'd hear a lot, but it's not totally unusual."

"Awesome," Chris grinned to himself, glad that she'd liked it. "So, okay, what's your name then for a girl, what am I going to maybe call my daughter?"

"Okay, well, I've been thinking a lot and I really hope you like it, I've had the first name forever, but…okay, I'm just going to tell you," Stephanie said, then took a deep breath, "I was hoping that you would like the name Amelia Loretta Irvine."

Chris turned around abruptly, the name taking him off-guard. He stared at her a moment, her eyes hopeful that he would like it. "You want her to have my mom's name?"

"I thought it would be appropriate and I think it goes well with Amelia, don't you?"

Chris didn't say anything for a moment before he threw his arms around Stephanie. Stephanie smiled as she leaned into him and hugged him back. "Thank you."

"There's nothing to thank me for, Chris, it's a beautiful name and I would love to have our daughter named after your mom. I know how much you loved her and I would think our daughter would be honored to be named after her grandmother and I would hope that your mom would have loved our kids."

"She would have, I wish she could've met them," Chris said, pulling away. "You have no idea how much this means to me, Steph, I might cry."

"No, don't," she laughed, running her hand down his cheek. "It's okay, I like it. Do you like Amelia?"

"I think it's beautiful, Brant and Amelia, did you hear that you guys, you have _names_!" Chris said, talking to Stephanie's stomach. "You guys are going to be Brant and Amelia Irvine. Wait, are you okay with just Irvine, did you want McMahon-Irvine."

She shook her head, "I'm fine with just Irvine."

"Cool, wait again, do you want me to change it to Brant Vincent for your dad?"

"Hell no," Stephanie said, "that man's ego is big enough on its own, we do not need to name anything after him, maybe a dead plant, but nothing else." Chris laughed and hugged her again. "Turn back around, I can finish your massage."

"Okay," he said, "thanks for that too. You're just full of amazing today."

"And everyday," she joked as he turned back around. "I'm really glad we got that settled though. I like thinking that our kids have names and identities now. I don't know, makes them…somebody, you know. They are something."

"As opposed to the nothing they were about ten minutes ago," he told her.

"You know what I mean!" Stephanie told him. "I'm just saying that I like that we have names now. Hopefully when they come out they actually look like their names or we'll have to think on the fly and our son will be named something like Hoover because I see a vacuum and our daughter will be Iron Maiden because you'll inexplicably be wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt while I'm giving birth."

"Damn it, you figured out my birth outfit," Chris told her and she shoved at him again. "God, with the way you abuse me, I think I won't even make it to the birth. Oh Jesus Christ, your hands are like magic, I think you're getting out knots I got years ago."

"Would you stop groaning, it's incredibly distracting," Stephanie told him.

"It's distracting you from what?" he wondered. "It's not like you're doing anything."

"Yeah, well, I've been horny for the past month or so and you making those kinds of sounds is not helping me."

"Oh really?" he said in a smarmy tone. "Now _that's_ something that the cameras would have _loved_ to have captured right there."

"That's why I said it when they weren't around," Stephanie told him, "It's natural though, that's what the book I'm reading said, it's all the hormones pumping through my body and I figure with the two of them in there, I'm double the hormonal."

"Scary," Chris said, then turned around, "you know, if you need _that_ kind of help, I'm more than willing. We've slept together before and I'd say I'm pretty damn good with it. I know you're pretty damn good with it."

"Don't you think that's crossing some sort of invisible line?"

"No, we've had sex before, we're having children," Chris, pressed his finger into her stomach. "If you are having a craving for that, which is better than your orange-grape juice of death I might add, I can help satisfy it."

"I couldn't ask you to do that."

"Hey, I'm a guy, I'm pretty much guaranteed to always be horny," he said, grabbing her hand. "I'm not sure how we're going to uh…get around the stomach, but I figure there's got to be a way around that. Come on, you want to?"

"I've never been propositioned in such a way before," she told him. In actuality, she was very seriously contemplating it. Taking care of herself was getting old and living in such close quarters with Chris reminded her that he was a man and she was a woman and she'd be lying if she hadn't thought of asking him to just help her out.

But it was weird. They were friends, they hadn't slept together since she'd gotten pregnant and this felt like it was crossing some sort of invisible line they had both agreed not to cross. If they had sex now, would they keep having it? What would be the consequences? Would it make them some kind of couple? Would they go back to just being friends? Would it be awkward? Or would this just be a one time thing, something to get it out of her system?

He leaned over and kissed her softly. It was brief and he pulled away. "I'll let you rip my clothes off…"

"You're not endearing me to you at all," she laughed.

He tilted his head down and peered at her. "Steph, you know me, I know you and plus, there's no worry about getting you pregnant."

"What happens after though?" she wondered. "I mean, what happens?"

"Let's go find out."


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Thanks for the reviews everyone, I hope you enjoy the chapter, review if you feel like it, they'd be much appreciated. :)

* * *

"_So you guys decided on baby names?"_

"_Yeah," Chris gave a small smile over at Stephanie and she grabbed his hand in excitement, giving it a squeeze. "Did you want to say them or do you want me to say them?"_

"_You can say them, it's not like they're going to be some sort of huge secret or reveal," Stephanie said to him, laughing as she looked at him. "You can go ahead and say them."_

"_Okay, so our kids are going to be Brant and Amelia Irvine," Chris's smile nearly beamed as he looked at the camera. His look was only matched by the one Stephanie wore on her face. She laughed and nodded her head along with him. "We each picked a name, I picked Brant's name and she picked Amelia's name and now our kids have names."_

"_Congratulations," Amy laughed, "Do they have any special meaning?"_

"_No, not really," Stephanie answered, "I think they were both just names that we liked. I've always loved the name Amelia, it's classic, but beautiful and Chris said that he just always liked the name Brant and so there were the names, just staring right at us."_

"_So this pregnancy is becoming more real for you then?"_

"_I would say so, yes, at least for me," Stephanie said, looking over at Chris briefly. "It's like, yes, I can feel them moving around and yes, my abdomen is becoming bigger and bigger, but they still were these things and now that they have names, it's more like, these are going to be people. They're going to have lives and loves and they're going to do great things and it's all just becoming more real."_

"_I thought it was real the moment I saw their heartbeats, well, one of their heartbeats since we didn't know about the other one immediately," Chris joked. "Seeing that for the first time was life-changing."_

"_It was for me too," Stephanie said, "but they were still just these things on a screen-"_

"_Adorable things on a screen," Chris added._

"_They are quite adorable," Stephanie conceded. "I'm ready to meet them though, I'm ready to hold them in my arms and just be a mom to them."_

"_Do you think you'll make good parents?" Amy asked._

"_I don't know, I think we'll try our best," Chris said, "I think Stephanie will be great though. She has this nurturing thing about her. She doesn't see it, but it's there."_

"_Chris is going to be a great dad, he's amazing. Everything he does is amazing so I can't imagine that he wouldn't be amazing with this as well."_

Chris wouldn't say things had necessarily changed. He'd slept with Stephanie, but it was more a convenience thing. It was natural. Having sex was just a part of life and they were both horny and it didn't hurt anyone, but he wouldn't say anything had changed. They didn't start making out whenever they wanted to, they didn't fall into bed. It was more like they had an itch and they'd scratched it and if it needed scratching again, that could be okay.

Chris couldn't say that he had romantic feelings for Stephanie. Sure, he thought she was beautiful and he knew from personal experience that she was a wonderful person. She had everything going for her, but he wasn't in love with her. He loved her, but that was it, he couldn't say there was this rush of feeling every time he saw her and he figured if he was in love, that rush of feeling would overcome him every time he saw her. While he loved seeing her, there wasn't that rush of feeling.

"Morning," Chris said as Stephanie stumbled into the kitchen, her hair askew as she ran her hand over her face. "You look a little worse for the wear."

"Gee, thanks," she said, pulling her tank top over her stomach as it was peeking out and she hated that. "Really, you guys, you have to film _this_? Is this seriously something you need to film?"

The camera guys nodded and Chris laughed, "This is supposed to be reality television, it wouldn't be reality if they didn't see everything about us, good, bad, or in this case, ugly…"

"I'm going to murder you in your sleep," Stephanie glared at him as she grabbed a cup from the cupboard and started some water in the kettle for some tea. "I already can't drink as much coffee as I'd like, do you really want to insult my looks at this point in your life?"

"Sorry," Chris shrugged towards the camera. "I, of course, always think Stephanie is beautiful because she's having my children."

"Better," she said as she leaned across the counter and gave him a wink. Chris laughed and then looked towards the camera again, his smile fading just slightly, but not enough to be noticeable. "So what are we doing today? I'm not awake enough to remember."

"We were going shopping for kids' stuff, then we're picking up my dad and step-mom from the airport because they wanted to come for a visit and everyone over at the WWE network really wants to see my family," Chris rolled his eyes. "Anything for a quick buck, eh, Vince?"

"Stop," Stephanie teased him.

"I know your dad is probably watching the footage of this and he's probably going to be editing this so that he comes across in the best light, I'm actually surprised that your dad hasn't made numerous appearances on this show," Chris joked and Stephanie laughed as she went to get the screeching tea kettle off the stove.

"He's saving that for sweeps."

"_Are you excited to have your parents here?"_

"_Well, it's just my dad and my step-mom, Bonnie," Chris answered, "I like her though. They've been married for a while now so I've known her, but they didn't get married until after I had moved out of the house and was already on the road wrestling so we're not exactly close, but she's still great. As for my dad, yeah, I love seeing him. Our relationship has actually gotten better since I moved out. I resented him a lot growing up, leaving all the time to go play hockey. I kind of felt abandoned. And then when he divorced my mom, I kind of felt resentment for him again, for both of them really at that point. I'm over it now of course, but I wasn't back then."_

"_How do you think your kids will handle it when you're wrestling? Do you think they'd resent you too?"_

"_Wow, that's actually a question I haven't really thought about," he rubbed the back of his neck and kind of wished this was a joint interview so Stephanie could weigh in on the subject. "I guess I plan on taking them with me, at least until they start school and by that time, I figure I'll be retired. I have no plans to wrestle forever. I know, with Stephanie being the mother of my children, that the business is never going to be far away, but I don't see myself as the Ric Flair type, wrestling until near collapse in the ring."_

"_That's a fair point. What do you think you'd do after wrestling though?"_

"_Raising my kids," he said as if it was obvious, "but also I want to take time to focus on my music. I love my band and I love that I'm in a band. I can tour with them, but never for too long because then it would take me away from Brant and Amelia and Stephanie."_

"_Do you think you'll plan to live with Stephanie for the foreseeable future?"_

"_Yeah, I have no plans to move out or not be here. I want to be here, there's nowhere else in the world I'd rather be."_

"Okay, do we get matching cribs or what?" Chris was a little overwhelmed by all the baby stuff. Stephanie had pretty high standards and while they could afford it, he felt a little out of place in such a posh baby store.

"No, because each nursery is going to have a different color," Stephanie told him with a scoff.

"Excuse me," Chris said, looking at the camera with a "who knew?" look on his face. "Wait, are we going to do blue for a boy and pink for a girl because could we be more cliché with that? I want our kids to be individuals."

"I was thinking a soft yellow for Amelia and a green for Brant, very pastel like colors because they say that's very calming for babies…or something like that," Stephanie said as she ran her hands over a crib. "What do you think?"

"You're the expert. Pretty much how you want to decorate the babies' rooms is how I want to decorate the babies' rooms," he told her and she laughed, "I'm not joking here. You're better at this kind of thing. If it were up to me, they'd have metal posters in their room and I don't know, guitar mobiles."

"Guitar mobiles would be cute," she said, "I wonder if you can get those custom-made."

"Exhibit A of why our kids will be spoiled brats," Chris told the camera, then grunted when Stephanie slugged him in the shoulder. "I'm just stating a probability here, but don't worry, we'll keep them in line, they won't be entitled if I have anything to say about it. I went through some tough times and look at me now, baby store shopping with the boss's daughter, whom I knocked up."

"You're crass and you're gross," Stephanie told him as she went over to look at a couple other cribs.

"Hey, Chris, we've got to change the tape, we'll be back," one of the camera guys said and Chris nodded before he started to follow Stephanie as she looked at various cribs. He threw his arm over her casually and she thought about shrugging him off, but decided against it. Instead, she just kept walking and looking at cribs.

"I kind of like all of them."

"Mmmhmm," she mumbled.

"Okay, so why are you mad at me?"

"You said our kids were going to be spoiled brats because I thought they should have custom-made mobiles. I wasn't being serious. I mean, it's a cute idea, but I don't think that's going to make them spoiled brats. Yes, I want to give my kids everything they need, but I don't intend to make them soft in the process," Stephanie told him. She was never one to act passive and not tell someone what was wrong when there was something wrong.

"I was just joking," he told her, "I know our kids won't be brats. Though I think they will be a little spoiled, but not to the point where they're little hellions. We're going to be good, Steph, I promise you that. We're not going to make our kids into brats."

"I'm sorry I got mad," Stephanie turned up to look at him, her eyes softening when she saw his smile. "You will keep me grounded, right? I'm going to need you there to be the good cop to my bad cop because I already know I'm going to be bad cop."

"Of course I'm going to be there to be good cop. But let's save that routine for when they're a little older and they're inevitably involved in some mischief. Knowing how I was as a kid, we're going to need to be on our toes."

"I think so too."

"So you're not mad at me anymore then?"

"No, I'm not mad at you."

"So that means if I have an itch that may need scratching…"

"I'll scratch it," she said playfully, nudging him in the shoulder. "If you don't mind being with a cow."

"Not a cow and we pretty much got around…that," he looked down at her stomach. "I think we did a pretty good job getting around that if I remember correctly."

"You're so weird, I swear to God, our kids are going to be so weird."

"I prefer to think they'll be witty," Chris told her as the camera guys came back inside with the sound guys. "Oh look, our entourage is back."

"So what are you guys doing now?"

"We're looking at cribs," Stephanie said, giving Chris a conspiratorial glance. "I don't think I'll be able to decide what I want, everything is so adorable. I just want to buy the entire store and then decide later."

"I would let her too," Chris said, "the one thing I've learned during her pregnancy is that she is always going to win. Whatever it is, I've already decided that she's going to win."

"_Chris is just so sweet most of the time," Stephanie said, "He's going to make a fantastic father, he really is. He's so funny and kind and generous and he'll give his entire hearts to these kids, I already know he's going to, hell, he probably already has. Whenever he sees them or hears their heartbeats, it's like a little bit of him melts and it's very endearing."_

"_You're making a pretty convincing argument for him?"_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_You almost sound like a dating video," Amy joked. Stephanie laughed and thought about it. Anyone would be lucky to have Chris._

"_Well, if there are any single ladies out there looking, I'll tell you now, he's quite the catch."_


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, everyone, hope you enjoy the chapter and review if you want to! :)

* * *

"_What did you think when Chris told you that you were going to be grandparents?"_

_Ted chuckled. "I think I was in too much shock to say anything that made any kind of sense. One day, we're talking about who we think is going to the Stanley Cup Finals and then the next day, he's telling me he's going to be a father. Then another day and he's going to be a father to twins. It was a lot to take in and at first, I really thought he was joking around with me."_

_Bonnie, Chris's stepmother laughed, "I just want grandchildren, that's all. I don't really care how they came about, but I get to spoil the heck out of a little boy and a girl. It's like he got it all together in one shot."_

"_That's a nice way of putting it," Ted told his wife and then looked back at the camera. "After I got over the initial shock, I went about asking the usual questions—"_

"_He asked Chris if he'd gotten married without telling us," Bonnie cut in, "I don't think either one of us saw Chris just having kids out of the blue."_

"_We figured he'd go about it in the traditional sense, but then, you can't really control the way your life goes, can you? But when he told us about what happened and about him and Stephanie, we accepted it because, really, what else can you do? We weren't going to disown him or anything nonsensical like that."_

"_Do you like Stephanie?" Amy asked._

"_We love her," Bonnie grinned. "She is such a wonderful girl. I couldn't have picked anyone else for Chris…well, not that they're together, I guess."_

"_What do you think about that? Do you think they should be together?"_

"_Well, in the traditional sense, there's always going to be a part of us that wants that for him," Bonnie said, "I mean, I know I can't speak for Chris as a child since he was already over 18 when I married Ted, but for his entire adult life, I've wanted to see him happy and settled because I love him like he was my own son and since his mother died, I like to think of myself as a maternal figure in his life so yes, I wanted that."_

"_I did too," Ted added, "but I mean, you have to have seen them, right? I don't think I'm wrong in saying the two of them get along quite well. I had never formally met Stephanie before my son decided to impregnate her, but since she's been in our lives the last several months, she's pretty damn perfect. I would love for my son to settle down with her, but only if he wants it. I hope he doesn't see this and think we're pushing them together because we're not, but frankly, I don't think they see what everyone else sees."_

"_What do you think that is?" Amy asked._

"_You had to have seen it," Ted said._

"_It's not about what we have or haven't seen," Amy said, but Ted just looked at her and she laughed, "Off the record, yes, of course we see it, but on the record, we are merely filmmakers and have to keep objective about our subjects."_

"_Yeah, objective, but off the record as well, I think there's a reason the two of them are having kids together and I don't think it's an accident."_

"Dad, Bonnie, over here!" Chris called out to his father and stepmother, who were looking around for them. Chris waved his arms and they came over, his father embracing him in a very manly hug. "It's so good to see you."

"I should have known it was you with the massive filming crew behind you," Ted said as he gestured to the cameras and sound guy right behind Chris and Stephanie. "It's so good to see you, it's been too long."

"I know," Chris said, patting his father on the back as he pulled away.

"Stephanie!" Bonnie said, opening up her arms and embracing the young woman. "Oh my God, look at you, you look like you're about ready to pop, how big are those babies?"

"Big enough to press on every internal organ I have," Stephanie laughed as she rubbed her stomach. "They're both the normal size, but I hardly think I'm going to be able to carry them to term. They'd be huge."

"Good genes," Chris said as Ted hugged Stephanie.

"I think you look beautiful," Ted told his…well, he didn't know what to call her actually, his son's baby mama? That sounded so bad and weird and he didn't like it, but wasn't that essentially what she was?

"Thank you," Stephanie said, "I'm really sorry about the cameras, my dad has been going overboard with the new programming for the new network and I don't know why he thought we would be even remotely interesting."

"People love kids," Ted shrugged as Chris helped with the bags. "And they love to be nosy so I imagine they'd be very interested in the show when it airs. I think you two are pretty interesting, but that's just me."

"Well, you're family," Stephanie said, "I would hope you think we're interesting."

"So how's the house?" Ted asked Chris. "Are you liking living in Connecticut, is it much different from how things were in Florida?"

"I think I like it better now, here in Connecticut," Chris said, glancing over at Stephanie and giving her a small smile. It didn't go unnoticed by Ted and he looked towards the cameras knowingly. It was like he was in the know with the entire audience on what was going on with his son when his son still had no idea.

"We actually picked names for the babies," Stephanie told them as they walked to the car.

"You did!" Bonnie said, "Okay, what are they, I must know!"

Stephanie laughed, "I thought we could tell you over dinner and that way it could kind of be a surprise thing, do you mind?"

"Dinner?" Bonnie sighed, "I guess I can wait until dinner but I'm going to need to know them as soon as we sit down."

"I promise, you'll know."

"_How do you get along with Chris's family?"_

_Stephanie laughed, "At first, I thought they would hate me or think I was some kind of slut because I'm not really with Chris, but they couldn't be more welcoming. I love Chris's dad. He's what I always thought a father should be. Chris tells me that his father was gone a lot when he was growing up so he kind of tries to overcompensate now, but I don't really get that vibe because he's not my father. He's just so much warmer than my dad, sorry Dad, I know you're watching this, but you know it's true. I love Bonnie too. She's always so enthusiastic."_

"_Do you wish you could have met Chris's mother?"_

"_I did meet her in passing once," Stephanie said, "sort of. Chris brought her to a show once, just once because traveling was so difficult for her. He introduced me, but because we weren't exactly friends at the time, this was really soon after he debuted, I simply met her, said hello and then had to go back to work. But I wish I could have known her, for sure. Chris talks about her a lot, talks about how great she was as a mother, strict, but caring and I would have loved to have picked her brain on how she raised Chris. He just never has anything but good things to say about her so I really wish I could have known her. You should have seen the way his eyes lit up when I told him I wanted to name our daughter after her."_

"_What was it like?"_

"_I think he was surprised that I thought of her in that instance, but really, it's been on my mind ever since I found out I was pregnant with Chris's child. I thought, if this is a girl, I know he would love it to be named after his mother. We're friends, I knew before how much he loved her, his sweet Loretta Modern as he calls her sometimes. I wanted to do this for him."_

"_Do you think you would have gotten along?"_

"_I like to think so. Chris says that he thinks we're a lot alike and that's why he knows I'll make a good mother. I think she would have been great to have in our lives. I'm not religious, but I like to think our loved ones never truly leave us so I'm sure that she's somewhere, thinking about how awesome it is that she gets these two kids."_

"So, since the cameras are following around Stephanie while she shows Bonnie the nurseries and what she wants to do with them, I thought we could have a little bit of a talk," Ted said, not realizing that they were still being filmed, but the camera was in the other room and kind of listening in on their conversation because Chris and Ted still had microphone packs on.

"What about, Dad?" Chris asked.

"About you and Stephanie," Ted said.

"Dad…"

"It's nothing bad and I'm not pushing you to marry the girl, Chris. I'm not one of those stuffy, old men who thinks you _have_ to get married then have kids. I respect your decisions, whatever those decisions were because I still don't know exactly how all this came about, but…"

"But what? Stephanie and I are happy," Chris told him. "I like living with her and I like being around her and I want to be around here for the kids. They're the most important things in my life right now. They're going to be the most important things in my lives for the rest of my life."

"I understand that," Ted said, "and I'm proud of you for taking responsibility—"

"I wanted these kids, Dad," Chris told him. "I wanted them when I was making them and I want them now and forever."

"Son, I'm not trying to get into an argument with you," Ted told him gently, "I'm just saying that…maybe there's something more going on with you and Stephanie than even you're willing to admit."

"We're friends, best friends."

"Yes, a best friend that you slept with and a best friend you're having children with. She's carrying your son and daughter, Chris, how can she just be your friend?"

"Because she is. I don't understand why everyone is trying to push us together when we don't want to be together. We're _fine_ with the way things are now and we don't need to be romantically involved to be a family."

"Nobody is questioning your ability to be a family, but when I look at you and Stephanie, I'm sorry, but I don't see friends, I see something more."

"Just because we're having kids doesn't mean there's anything more there."

"I just see the way you look at her and quite frankly the way she looks at you and I have to admit, it doesn't just look like friends," Ted said, "I'm not saying these things to hurt you, Chris, I would never do that. I just want you to be happy."

"Dad, I am happy, I'm so happy. I have great things ahead of me. I've got two kids on the way, how can I not be thrilled?"

"Okay, if you say so."

"_Sometimes, I think Chris is scared."_

"_Scared?" Amy asked curiously. "What do you think he's scared of?"_

"_Screwing things up," Ted said. "I think that's partially my fault. His mother and I were together for a long time and I think the divorce was abrupt to him. He didn't understand it and he was very unhappy and I think it kind of soured him on relationships. I think that was one of the reasons we were so surprised about Stephanie. I honestly didn't expect him to get it together and have kids, but then he's not with her and I think…I think he's scared to be with someone like that."_

"_Because of failure?"_

"_Yes," Ted said. "I'm not sure I want this put on television, but I think he's afraid of failing this. He's so good at so many things, I think he keeps thinking that there must be something he'll fail at and this could be it."_

"_But you don't think so?"_

"_I don't," Ted said. _

"_What do you think?"_

"_I think if he just opened his eyes, he'd find that he has a lot more to look forward to than just his kids."_


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Thanks for the reviews and reads, everyone. I hope you enjoy the chapter, it's getting very, very difficult to keep these two apart so who knows, maybe with enough influence, I'll get them together already. ;) Anyways, enjoy, review if you feel up to it! :)

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"Look at you, stuck here for an evening in with me."

Chris turned his head slightly and looked at Stephanie. They had a rare night off with the cameras so he didn't have to be "on" right now. So, instead of being his normal, charming self, he was flailed across the sofa, his head resting against the back of it as he watched television with Stephanie. She'd been having some wicked heartburn the past few days and she wanted nothing more than to lounge around and do nothing.

"I don't consider that punishment," Chris told her with a smile.

"Are you sure? Because I'm the most boring roommate ever, I think," Stephanie told him. "I wouldn't blame you if you just died of boredom right now, just went ahead and keeled over."

Chris laughed and reached out to grab her hand, lacing their fingers together, "I wouldn't consider you a bore, ever, not once. It's nice to have someone who you can just watch TV with, it's actually kind of nice. Feels very homey."

"I'm glad you actually feel like this is your home now," Stephanie said, "I know it's been an adjustment for you, especially because you knew so many people in Florida, what with most of our guys actually living there in our off time."

"I wouldn't want to be anywhere else," he told her, giving her another one of his smiles. "I like it here, it's calmer, you know what I mean."

"That's only going to last a few more months before I pop these things out," Stephanie pointed to her stomach. She seemed to be growing by the day, or at least that's how she felt. Every morning, her maternity pants got tighter and tighter. She tried not to be one of those women who constantly complained about being fat and hating their body, but it became harder the bigger she got. And she was carrying two so she was automatically bigger than most women who were pregnant with one child.

"These things? Don't listen to her, guys, she doesn't mean that," Chris leaned over to talk to her stomach. "It's okay, Brant, Amelia, Mommy doesn't mean what she says. She doesn't know what she's talking about."

"Believe me, I do," Stephanie said. "I think they wrestle in there, they move around so much."

"Maybe they're just trying to get comfortable," Chris said, unlacing their hands so he could rub her stomach. "Are they awake right now or are they asleep?"

"They're awake," Stephanie told him, grabbing his hand as she pulled up her shirt and then put his hand on a particular spot.

Chris felt one of them pound against his hand, small though it was still, and he grinned up at Stephanie, his whole face lighting up. This was the only way he could communicate with his children for right now, but it never got old. It was like his babies were making themselves present in his life, and he could not wait for the moment where he got to actually interact with them. He was going to hold both of them for hours when they finally showed their probably adorable faces. They'd have to pry him from his arms he was going to love those two so much.

"I will never get tired of feeling that…you know, until they actually come," Chris told her, keeping his hand on her stomach. "That is seriously the best feeling in the world right now. I know it's probably uncomfortable for you, but for me, it's pretty awesome."

"It is, because they are dancing all over my insides and with two of them, it's like they've taken the initiative to just make more room for themselves."

"Poor Stephy, poor babies," Chris pouted and she shoved him playfully in the shoulder as he pretended to fall back against the couch. Chris turned back towards the television, but his phone rang from where it was sitting on the end table. He looked at it and his eyes widened.

"Who is it?" Stephanie asked.

"It's this woman I met the other day when I was getting lunch for us," Chris said, "do you mind if I take this?"

"No, go ahead," Stephanie told him, giving him a smile as she turned back to the television. Chris left the room and went into the kitchen so he could talk on the phone without disturbing Stephanie.

"Hey," Chris answered the phone when he was out of earshot.

"Hey, Chris, I was just making sure this wasn't a fake number," Alaina told him. "Actually, I was just calling up to say hey and I was hoping we could go out sometime."

"Bold, I like that," he joked. "Um, can I get back to you on that? My schedule is pretty weird right now so I want to make sure that I can find a time when I can go out. Do you mind if I call you back?"

"No, I don't mind at all," Alaina said. "Just call me back whenever, you obviously have my number in your phone now."

"I do, thanks," Chris said, "I'll talk to you later?"

"You better," she told him, "bye."

"Later," he responded before ending the call. He smiled down at the phone for a moment before he walked back into the living room where Stephanie had switched the channel to some game show or another. She looked up at him and gave him a small smile before he dropped down to the couch again.

"Hey, so who's the girl?" Stephanie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Her name's Alaina. She seems pretty cool. She bumped into me when I was at that lunch place, like I said. I mean, she literally bumped into me and she's pretty, I guess."

"You guess?"

"Yeah, I mean, you know, the standard pretty, blonde, blue-eyed, that whole deal, I mean, she was pretty, but I guess it was her boldness that really struck me. She's one of those people who just likes to talk to anyone, who's friendly like that," Chris explained. "I guess I was just drawn into it."

"Well, she seems cool, I guess, I mean, she had the balls to call you and that's something," Stephanie told him, "does she watch wrestling? Did she recognize you?"

"No, probably because I wasn't in ring tights with my name splashed on my ass," he joked and she laughed and ducked her head. "She doesn't strike me as the kind of person who watches wrestling."

"Oh, so one of _those_," Stephanie joked and Chris laughed. "So when are you going out with her?"

"Probably never," he shrugged.

"What, why?" Stephanie asked. "I mean, you seem to like her, you gave her your number after all. Doesn't that mean you want to go out with her? You should if you want to, I'm not going to mind. We have an understanding, Chris, we've always had an understanding. You're my best friend and nothing more."

"I know," Chris shook his head. "It's just the circumstances under which we're having these kids is going to be a challenge to explain to any woman, let alone one I just met on a whim. I mean, how does it sound when I tell someone, oh, I'm having twins with my best friend?"

"I don't know, I'm the best friend," Stephanie told him, running her hand up and down his arm. "I don't want to cramp your style. Me and the kids are going to be here, we're not going anywhere."

"I thought we discussed this, Steph," Chris said, "I gave her my number because—"

"Because you liked her," Stephanie said. "I know you said you wouldn't date anyone or you would stay celibate or whatever for the duration of my pregnancy, but that's not fair to you. It's not fair that you set these rules for yourself when they're unreasonable. Go out with her."

"I don't want to," Chris told her, "I would rather hang out with you. I really would."

"I insist," Stephanie told him.

"Steph."

"Chris, I _insist_."

That was how he found himself on a date with Alaina. He'd chosen a fairly romantic restaurant, French bistro with white tablecloths and mood lighting. Alaina was sitting across from him in a tight-fitting red dress that definitely hugged her curves. Her hair was falling softly over her shoulders in waves, and the lighting made her facial features soft and inviting. Chris smiled at her across the table, but his mind was elsewhere. Stephanie had strained her back that morning trying to pick up a sock she'd dropped from the dryer. She was laid up in bed and he'd wanted to stay home, but she'd almost made him leave.

"I'm really glad I got the chance to go out with you," Alaina told him. "You mentioned your busy schedule, do you travel a lot?"

"Yeah, I do, I'm a wrestler," Chris told her. "I also have a band so I travel a lot."

"That's cool," Alaina told him. "I've never watched it, but it seems kind of cool. What kind of band?"

"Metal," he said distractedly, hoping that Stephanie was okay. He'd left her on the couch so she had access to the kitchen, but it was probably going to be extra difficult for her to get up. It was already becoming a chore for her to pull herself out of anything more comfortable than a sturdy chair.

"Wow, I'd love to see that, metal is one of my favorite genres," she told him, "Stryper is totally my band."

He couldn't help but smile at that, "I love them too. I have so many favorite bands. I consider myself a bit of an aficionado with music, but metal music in particular."

"Oh wow, that's cool, I may have to try and challenge you, but then I think I'd get crushed, so I'm probably better off not saying anything and not challenging you, right?"

"I wouldn't bet against me if that's what you're wondering," he winked at her.

"So what's your story? " Alaina asked.

"Well, I'm from Winnipeg, Canada originally, but I live here in Connecticut now. I actually recently moved here after living in Florida for about eleven years before I moved up here."

"Wow, that had to be a change," she said. "Why did you move up here? Was it closer to work or something?"

"More like or something," Chris admitted.

"Oh, that sounds ominous," she said, narrowing her eyes a little bit. "Was there something up here that made you come back? Family or something?"

"Kind of family, well, yes, I would say it is family. You see, I have kids."

"Oh, _oh_," Alaina nodded slowly. "You have kids, wow, kids as in plural, wow, that's actually pretty cool, um, kids are pretty cool, actually, so you have more than one, so you have…two, three?"

"Two," Chris smiled as he thought about the little girl and boy he couldn't wait to meet. Alaina took notice of the way his face softened and it was actually quite endearing. There was something so sweet about a man who was obviously enamored with his children. "Twins, actually, a boy and a girl."

"Oh wow, that's so cute," she said, "how old are they?"

And here came the hard part, "Well, actually, they're not going to be born for about three more months."

"Oh my God, you're married," her jaw dropped open. "I accepted a date from a married guy."

"No, no, no, it's not like that."

"She's your girlfriend, oh my God, you're scum!" she told him.

"No, it's not like that either," he said quickly. "We're just best friends and we kind of decided that kids were something we both wanted and…we just kind of decided to have them and she got pregnant and they're twins and…yeah…"

"So you got your best friend pregnant and now you're what, living with her?" she asked. Chris nodded. "And you don't find that the least bit weird?"

"It's crazy, I know this," he told her, "but it is what it is, and if I'm being honest, she hurt her back this morning and I'm worried sick about her."

Alaina laughed, "You're kidding me, right?"

"I'm sorry."

"Wow, okay," she nodded, but she didn't understand. "I'm really sorry to butt in here when I barely know you and I don't know her at all beyond the fact she's carrying your _twins_, but don't you think that tells you something? I mean, you move up to be around her, you impregnated her, that means something. You know what, go back to her, I'll catch a cab and you can go back to the woman carrying your children."

"Alaina, I'm really sorry."

"No, don't be, be sorry for her because seriously, guy, I mean, what woman wants to see the guy who knocked her up go out on a date?"

Chris just looked at her and nodded. This was the second time that someone had said something about him and Stephanie in the last week. He wished people could understand what he saw when he looked at Stephanie. Nobody seemed to see that. He put down some money for the waiter and left. The drive home was quiet and when he walked into the house he could hear the TV on in the living room.

"Chris, back so soon?" Stephanie asked as she looked up at Chris. She had a bag of potato chips next to her. "Bad date?"

"I was too worried about you and your back. How are you feeling?"

"It's still sore, but I managed to get some potato chips," she held up the bag triumphantly.

"You haven't eaten dinner?" he asked. She shook her head. "Steph, come on, you know you have to eat because you have two people mooching off of you right now. What were you going to do?"

She shrugged, "I guess I was probably going to order in."

"I'll make something, it's healthier for you guys," he told her, kissing the top of her head as he passed. "She wasn't my type anyways. It's for the best."

"Well, as long as it was for the best," Stephanie called out as she watched Chris's back.

"Believe me, it was."

"_Everyone keeps telling me I should feel this way or I _do_ feel this way, but it never makes any sense to me why people do this. They never get inside my head, they don't think my thoughts. It's just frustrating how everyone thinks they know one thing when they don't know a damn thing about the situation."_

"_I'm sensing a but here," Amy said from beyond the camera. Chris sighed and looked straight at the camera._

"_But she's having my kids…"_


	10. Chapter 10

"_I don't know what's been with him lately, but he's acting a little strangely."_

"_How so?" Amy asked._

"_I don't know, he's been a little bit more…introverted," Stephanie frowned, the corners of her mouth turning down. "I mean, it's not anything bad, I guess, it's just like…I don't know, he just seems distant, like he has a lot on his mind."_

"_Do you have any idea what it could be?" _

"_No, I mean, he's kind of been like this ever since he went out on that date," Stephanie looked especially bothered now, the space between her eyebrows knitting together and giving her slight wrinkles. "Part of me is…well, I guess part of me is unsure. I'm just wondering if…God, I know this sounds stupid, and even worse that I'm confessing this to a TV show."_

"_We don't have to use any of this footage," Amy assured her. "It's really up to you what we can and can't use. Your father is the one ultimately paying us so I think you can have some dictation on what we show."_

_Stephanie laughed, "I don't know, I really don't. It's kind of like, maybe he's thinking about how he's stuck with me, and maybe he would rather just be out with someone else? I'm not really sure, but I just feel like something is kind of pulling him away from me. I'm just not sure what it is."_

Stephanie stuck her tongue out at the camera. "My mom wanted to do a photoshoot today with just the family. I think it's kind of dumb, but they thought I would want a picture of me while I was pregnant, like it would be something special."

"It will be," Chris cut in front of her in the shot. Stephanie pushed him away as he chuckled.

"Don't listen to him, I'm not sure I want to remember how big I am right now," Stephanie said distastefully, glaring down at her expanding middle. She felt so big right now, and it didn't help when she went to the doctor's office and looked twice as big as everyone there. She knew she was having twins, but it wasn't immediately obvious so she felt humongous compared to all the other pregnant women she saw.

"Have you forgotten you're talking into a camera right now," Chris told her as he grabbed a cup of coffee. He took a sip as he leaned back on the counter. "You get to watch all of this when it comes out. And you know what they say, the camera adds ten pounds."

"Shut up," Stephanie said good-naturedly, grabbing his coffee cup from her and taking a sip. He glared at her, giving her a pointed look, "I know, I know, no caffeine, but one sip is not going to make our kids have two heads each. I'm dying without my coffee."

"You are not dying," he told her in an even tone.

"I am so," she pouted, looking longingly at the cup, "but I've got to do what's best for the kids and all of that. I'm mostly eating healthy, but I let myself splurge every once in a while, especially when I just crave something so badly I can't even take it."

"The other night it was garlic bread," Chris said, "all this woman wanted to eat was garlic bread. The entire house smelled like garlic all day. I had to buy a whole loaf that she devoured—"

"I dipped it in marinara sauce," Stephanie said, "it was _so_ good."

"My kids are going to come out smelling like they're trying to ward off Dracula," Chris said, running his hand over Stephanie's stomach casually. She sent him a soft look. She could tell he was trying not to be as distant as he had been, and she was grateful for the change. She didn't like it when Chris closed himself off from her; it somehow felt wrong.

"_So you seem to be in better spirits," Amy directed her comments towards Chris, "how are you feeling?"_

"_I like to think I'm doing okay. This picture thing is going to be weird though," Chris said with a shrug. "I mean, it's just I'm not sure where I really fit in with this family, the McMahons I mean, not with Stephanie, I get what I am with Stephanie. We're friends, we're going to raise our kids, everything is going well on that front, but when Linda said she wanted to take family pictures, I don't know, I guess I thought to myself, where do I fit? _Do_ I even really fit at all, and I'm not sure. So I'm going there with an open mind because that's all I really can do."_

"_Have you talked to Stephanie about it?"_

"_I don't want to burden her," Chris shook his head, his lips pursing ever so slightly after he answered. "She's getting to that point in the pregnancy where she's feeling really crappy a lot of the time, and she's moody and stressed, and she doesn't need to hear me talk about that kind of thing. With the twins, they're really monitoring her, making sure she won't need bed-rest, and we're both fully aware that she probably won't be carrying Amelia and Brant to term, so I don't want to make it any harder on her."_

"_But don't you think she could help you?"_

"_Maybe, but just being around her is enough. I just want to make everything easier for her, and then I can think about myself later, when the kids are here."_

"You look beautiful," Linda said, coming over to Stephanie and Chris as they walked in the door of the studio. Linda smoothed Stephanie's hair down. "You are simply glowing, sweetheart, you're beautiful."

"Thanks, Mom, I wasn't entirely sure what to wear," Stephanie looked down at her blousy tank top and stretch pants, the only pants she could wear comfortably.

"Well, you look gorgeous," Linda patted Stephanie's stomach, "how are my grandchildren doing in there, behaving I hope."

Stephanie laughed, "They're both doing well. Amelia is apparently the bigger of the two and she's already bossing around Brant, so they're going to be a handful, I can tell already."

"As long as they're healthy," Linda told her before she turned to Chris, giving him a hug, "Hello, Chris, it's so nice to see you again."

"Thanks, Linda," Chris said in greeting.

"Come on, come on, we've got to get pictures taken, we've only go so much time with the photographer and I wanted to get the family portrait in first before we take some shots of you. I want to put them on display at the house."

"Mom," Stephanie whined. "Why are you going to put them on display? Isn't it bad enough you're making me take these pictures?"

"Nonsense, what's the point of taking a picture if you're not going to show it, and I guarantee you're going to want a picture to remember this by. I wish I'd done that with you and Shane. It would have been a special memory."

"Fine," Stephanie said, "let's get this over with."

They walked into the backroom where the rest of her family was waiting. Vince was adjusting his tie, trying to straighten it while Shane was trying to make sure Kenny wouldn't start unbuttoning his shirt. Marissa was trying to smooth down Declan's hair and everything looked to be in general chaos. Stephanie gave a pleading look to Chris, like she wanted him to save her, but he just shrugged, at a total loss for what to do.

"Well this is something you don't see often," Chris whispered to the cameras. "The McMahon family is in complete disarray. I don't think I've ever seen them look like this, that's how you know this is reality. I doubt they would let themselves look like this if they knew they were being filmed."

"You guys know we're filming right now, right?" Stephanie said to her family after overhearing what Chris was saying.

"Oh my God," Marissa yelped, standing straight and smoothing out her dress. "Why didn't you tell us?"

Stephanie laughed, "I thought you guys realized we were filming because well…we're going to be on a reality show so of course we're going to be filmed."

"Warn a girl," Marissa laughed, trying to look presentable and normal. "Shane!"

"Oh yeah, hey everyone!" Shane waved at the cameras.

"_So Shane, we've got reactions from pretty much everyone else in both Stephanie and Chris's family, what are your thoughts on your sister's pregnancy."_

"_I'm fine with it," Shane shrugged. "She's my sister, I love her, and I know she knows what's best for her. She has been independent since she was a little girl, believe me, she was constantly trying to do everything herself. This is kind of like that. Chris is a good guy, she's an amazing woman, I don't see why their decisions should affect anyone else but themselves. I'm just looking forward to meeting my niece and nephew."_

"_I think it's going to be great," Marissa gushed. "I can't wait to see the babies, they're going to be so cute because Stephanie is gorgeous and Chris is, well, let's just say if I didn't have _this_ guy right here, I would be mighty jealous of Stephanie."_

"_Hey, that's not cool," Shane told her, nudging her in the shoulder._

"_I'm just saying, I didn't say _you_ were bad," Marissa looped her arm through Shane's. "I agree with him though, people just need to quit their talking about the tow of them. Gossip is not becoming of everyone, and the two of them are going to be great parents."_

"Okay, everyone, let's figure out where we want everyone to be," the photographer said, guiding each person to a specific spot. Chris felt out of place and kind of just hung back near the cameras filming this going on. He wasn't really sure what to do with himself, but he really didn't want to intrude on the moment. He wasn't exactly part of the family, and he didn't want to make any assumptions about it.

"Chris, come over here!" Linda said, waving him over. "You are part of this family now, now get over here."

"Linda, that's alright," Chris said, thinking she just felt bad for him because he was standing by himself. He could see the camera flipping back and forth between them. "I don't need to be in the picture."

"No, you're in the picture, you're here for the long haul, Chris," Linda said, coming over and pulling him into the shot. "You stand behind Stephanie, that way all the women are in front of the men."

Chris gave Stephanie a look and she smiled at him. He wondered once again what was going on here. Now he was part of the family, like he and Stephanie were together. It felt like the forces that be were trying to push them together, but he just didn't know what he felt for Stephanie. He'd never sat down and thought about it, but the universe kept trying to squeeze an answer out of him, but he just didn't know how he felt. He went and stood behind Stephanie, pressing his hands into her shoulders, emulating the other poses. He smiled because it was a picture, but it didn't reach his eyes.

He was confused about everything in his life right now. Stephanie could feel Chris's hands tense on her shoulder, and she looked up at him between shots. He was smiling, but it came out looking more like a grimace. She reached her right hand up and place it atop Chris's hand, rubbing it comfortingly. He snapped out of it to look down at her, his face becoming serene as she continued to rub his hand.

"You okay?" she mouthed and he nodded imperceptibly. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" he mouthed back.

"All of this," she rolled her eyes and he gave a short laugh. Neither one realizing they were being filmed at the moment. They were just trying to have a moment to themselves, but nothing was really to themselves anymore. Everything was going to be shown to the world, all their moments, all their interactions, it was all going to be shown to everyone who wanted to see. They were now an open book.

"I'm fine," he told her, shaking his head. She smiled at him again, but then had to look away when the photographer was ready again. He took a few more shots before letting Linda look at the pictures to choose their favorites. In the meantime, Stephanie grabbed Chris's hand and took him into a corner, away from the cameras to get a moment's peace.

"I'm sorry you had to go through with that."

"It's okay, it's a nice gesture on your mom's part, and she's right, I am a part of this family now."

"Does that bother you?" she wondered curiously. He thought about it, looking down at her stomach. He loved his children. He hadn't even met them, and he loved them to pieces. He would do anything for them, even accept being in this crazy family, even if it was just on the periphery.

"No, it really doesn't bother me at all."


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Thanks for the reviews and everything, guys, much appreciated, hope you enjoy and reviews are love, so please leave one! :)

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"Oh my God, I can't believe I have to watch myself on TV!"

Chris laughed as he sat at the counter in his and Stephanie's kitchen, eating his lunch. He swallowed the bite of sandwich he had in his mouth. "Stephanie, you do realize you've _been _on TV, right?"

"I _know_," Stephanie told him with a note of exasperation, "but I've never been pregnant while doing it before, you know. I mean, it's just like…I don't know how it's going to look, or what people are going to think, and I knew it was going to air, I just thought…"

"You just thought that it would be later?"

"I guess," Stephanie leaned against the counter, her elbow leaning next to Chris's plate. "I mean, I just thought that it would air when all of this was over, you know, the kid thing."

"Well, when this pregnancy is over, we're going to get kids out of it," Chris laughed as Stephanie punched him in the arm, "ouch, you guys, your mom is abusing me!"

"I am not," she looked down to her stomach. "They're kicking, well, at least one of them is, I don't know whose limb belongs to whom, but one or both of them is making themselves known. They're probably mad at you too."

"Steph, they have enough episodes, and your dad thinks it's a good time to see what the public thinks about the two of us."

"And if they hate us, this all goes away?" Stephanie asked.

"I would think so. If the public doesn't have a demand for us, there's no way your dad would keep this going," Chris shrugged. "You know, it wouldn't be terrible if that happened. I mean, sure, it's kind of cool to have them filming us, and it's kind of exciting to know that people might want to see us, but sometimes…"

"Sometimes what?" Stephanie asked curiously. She was glad Chris was opening up to her, or at least might open up to her. She wanted to be able to speak with Chris about anything and everything, and sometimes she felt like she couldn't. If he opened up the door to her, she knew she could open up right back to him. She knew they weren't in a relationship, but they did have a relationship, and like any relationship, she wanted to foster it and watch it get stronger.

"Sometimes I just feel like I can't be myself with them around, like I have to be this weird version of myself. I guess I feel like I have to be Chris Jericho and not necessarily Chris Irvine," Chris explained to her.

He knew the show was supposed to be reality, and it was, it _was_ their life, but then in other ways, it wasn't. Sometimes they had to film something a couple times and he had to say what he'd just said, and that felt inorganic. Plus, he had to be careful of what he said. He wasn't a bad guy, but sometimes he swore a lot, and he had to watch out for that. He didn't want to offend anyone with anything he said, so he was constantly conscious of every move he made. It was really no way to live.

Stephanie placed her hand on top of Chris's right one and gave it a small squeeze. "I know what you mean. I mean, I just keep thinking people are going to hate me more than they already do. Then I think, oh God, people are going to judge me on my life, and it's nerve-wracking. I almost don't want to watch it tonight."

"It's probably best we stay off the internet afterwards," Chris laughed, "I don't think we're going to want to see what they say about us."

"I've learned a long time ago not to go on there," Stephanie sighed. "I think I had a lot of self-esteem issues right after my debut. I had the bad habit of looking online to see what people thought about me, and that was just a bad idea altogether."

"I didn't know you did that," Chris told her, "I mean, I didn't really know you back then, not like I do now—"

"Well, I think that's obvious," Stephanie gestured towards her expanding midsection and Chris laughed and made a "duh" face. "They did, I mean, people were pretty harsh. The internet was still relatively new, and I guess I just thought everyone would love me, and then I go on, and it was a wakeup call."

"What kinds of things were they saying?"

"Mostly stuff about how I got to where I was because of my dad, how I was probably a ditz or something, just relying on my father's money," Stephanie shook her head, "other stuff about the way I looked. I mean, you know I got the breast implants because of the low self-esteem and everything that happened."

"Yeah," he said, "for the record, I'm glad you got them reduced. I mean, I think you're gorgeous."

Stephanie blushed a little bit, "Thanks. I just learned that I don't need people to tell me how to think about myself. It's harmful, and it's actually pointless. I hated it, so I just decided not to look anymore. I know who I am, I don't need some internet nobody telling me who I am."

"That's the spirit," Chris said. "I'm also kind of glad we're not having a party like your dad suggested."

"Oh my God," Stephanie covered her face. "I cannot believe he wanted to have a red carpet viewing party for the show. How embarrassing would that have been? It's bad enough we're getting filmed all the time, I don't need to have to go to a party and watch everyone watching me."

"Me neither," Chris shook his head. "At least we get the short break from the cameras. That's something at least."

"A relief," Stephanie said, walking over to the counter and grabbing a bag of chips, opening them up and snacking on them a little. "They're hungry, I must please my new overlords. I can't believe I still have three months to go with these two. I'm huge already, it's crazy!"

"You're beautiful, and I'm going to tell you you're beautiful for the rest of your life."

Chris was suddenly struck by that term. Saying that would imply he'd be around Stephanie for the rest of her life. It wasn't so much a _new_ revelation, they were having children together after all, but it was the way that he figured he'd be a significant part of her life forever. Sure, they were best friends, but…wait, why was he thinking about this? They were best friends, even if people thought they were more, they knew what they were. They were friends, and friends stayed in each other's lives, especially when they were having twins together.

"Thank you, but I don't think I'm going to be a 90 year old beauty, just a hunch," Stephanie said, a few crumbs falling onto her stomach as she brushed them away. "Hey, you two, seriously, calm down in there, I know you love potato chips, but you guys don't need to fight over them."

"Hey, you want to grab some food for our big premiere?" Chris asked. "I can make you dinner."

"Chris, you don't need to do that, we can just get takeout."

"No, I insist, I want you and my kids to be as healthy as possible," he said, grabbing his empty plate and putting it in the dishwasher before going over to her and patting her stomach. "Not sure I want my kids to always be fighting over potato chips."

"Okay," Stephanie nodded, smiling at him, but her smile turned down a moment later, "Chris, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, you know you can."

"Is everything okay with you? I mean recently. It's just been like, I don't know, like ever since you went on that date, you've been holding something back. I mean, I told you if you wanted to date that I didn't have a problem with it, and I still don't. I mean, if I could get out there, not that I necessarily would, but I mean, I've lost my train of thought here. I'm just saying that if that's what was bothering you, you don't have to feel badly on my account."

"That's not what it was," he shook his head.

She gave a small shrug and a worried look. "Then what is it? I just feel like you've been pulling away from me, and I couldn't figure it out. I know I'm not…I know I'm not the most appealing thing right now, but if you need something physical, I'm here."

"That's the saddest proposition I've ever gotten," Chris said, kissing her temple.

"I'm not exactly the slut everyone thinks I am."

"I never thought you were," he told her, "it was just, everyone always questions our relationship, and I was just confused about it, that's all. I was confused because I thought we were one thing, but everyone keeps saying we're something different, and it just threw me for a loop. When I was on my date, I kept worrying about you. Your back was aching, and I just didn't want you to feel uncomfortable. Then my date, she was asking me about myself, and the inevitable, 'Do you have any kids?' question came up, and I had to explain what was going on, and she was less than understanding, and I wanted to be with you anyways, and she just said something that resonated with me."

"What was that?" she asked curiously. She was happy Chris was telling her all of this. She'd figured something more happened on that date, but she'd never worked up the courage to ask him exactly what.

"She said that if we were having kids together, and I wanted to be with you because you were hurt, why weren't we together, or something to that affect, I don't remember the exact words. And I don't know, everyone keeps saying it…"

"Chris," Stephanie gave a short laugh. "_We_ define our relationship, not anyone else. If, in the future, or tomorrow, or right now, we decide we want to be together, it has to be because _we_ want to be together. I don't care what anyone else thinks, and I don't want you to either."

"I don't want to, it's just the world is kind of overwhelming, and now our lives are going to be out there for everyone to see, for everyone to scrutinize and talk about, and it's a little frightening because…we don't know what they're going to think."

"Didn't we both agree that we weren't going to care?" she reminded him.

"I lied, I'm going to care a little," he joked and she came over to him and wrapped her arms around him as best she could. She ended up having to stand to his side a little bit, wrapping her arms around his middle as he awkwardly hugged her around the neck.

"I care a little too," Stephanie said, "but at the end of the day, you know I'm right. Whatever happens between us, it's going to be because the both of us want it to happen. I love you, Chris, am I in love with you? I don't know, maybe, maybe not, I haven't given it much thought."

"No? It seems like that's all I've been doing lately," Chris confessed.

Every night he lay in bed wondering if he was doing the right thing. It was too late to renege on the children thing because that was going to happen whether he liked it or not, but he kept thinking about the logistics of it all. Would his kids be teased because their parents weren't together, had never been together? Would people look at them strangely if they knew the story, which people were going to know? There was the potential for a lot of people to watch this show, and that was a lot of judging out there. Could he handle that? The scrutiny from their family and friends was hard enough, but the world at large? How could he possibly shoulder that weight?

"Then just stop."

"What if we're being blind?"

"Don't you think we would know if there was something between us?" Stephanie asked, leaning her chin on his shoulder. "I mean, don't you think one of us would have gleaned onto the idea of being in love?"

"We've been pretty focused on the babies," he told her.

"Yes, we have because they're our children," she giggled, "but they're not here yet so we do have time to ourselves. Look, stop overanalyzing everything, it's only going to make you feel worse and worse, and then I'll have to pick up the pieces, and I'm pregnant with twins, bending over is not something I can do nowadays."

"Steph?"

"Yeah?"

"I want to take you out."

"Excuse me?" she laughed. "For what?"

"To dinner, I want to take you out to dinner."

"Chris, I thought we just had a whole discussion about how we weren't going to let everyone rule our lives."

"We're not, I want to see for myself, I think I need to," Chris said, kissing her forehead. "Maybe we're just thinking too narrowly. Maybe we should try it out, see if it works, I mean, we're still best friends, why not try?"

"Okay then, I'm in."


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Thanks for the reviews and everything, hope you enjoy the chapter. :)

* * *

"I think the babies want this."

Chris looked at the ice cream sandwiches Stephanie put into the cart. "The _babies_ want that?"

"Yeah, I was looking at it, and they just started kicking like crazy. I think they have a link up with my brain and they're trying to tell me to get these," Stephanie told him as she spotted a frozen cherry pie. "They want that cherry pie too, I'm sure of it."

Stephanie reached for the door handle that led to the pie, but Chris intercepted her, "If you're going to have pie, I'll make it for you, it won't have so much sugar in it."

"You're going to make me a pie?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm going to make you a pie," Chris told her, "I'm telling you, I know how to cook. I used to spend a lot of time with my grandma when I was younger, and she was the best cook I ever knew. She taught me a bunch of stuff, including how to make pies."

"Maybe this whole relationship thing isn't going to be so bad after all," Stephanie sent him a small, shy smile, testing out the waters. He smiled back at her. "I can keep the ice cream sandwiches though, I mean, for the kids of course."

"Sure," Chris told her, "So besides the pie, I need to get something to actually make for dinner tonight, what do you want?"

"I don't care," Stephanie shrugged, "what do you feel like?"

"I guess I can grill some steaks. I know that fish isn't exactly your friend these days," Chris pointed towards her stomach, "they're picky. So steaks and maybe some grilled corn and mashed potatoes?"

"Can we have macaroni and cheese?" Stephanie asked. "We can even just get the box kind, but that sound so good with steak."

"Steak and macaroni and cheese?" Chris chuckled. "I'm going to guess that the steak is all you, but the mac and cheese is all them?"

"I don't know, I just like mac and cheese," Stephanie told him with a grin. Chris was starting to find that grin quite disarming. Ever since they'd admitted there might be the potential for something more earlier that day, he was really starting to warm to the idea. At the very least, he and Stephanie could try. There was nothing wrong with trying to see if there was more. If there wasn't, no harm, no foul.

"Okay, your wish is my command."

"Man, having this power over you is going straight to my head," she said, looping her arm through his as they walked down the aisle, Chris pushing the cart in front of them. "So that girl you went out with, up until the moment you had to tell her about me, were things going well?"

"Why are you asking?"

"I don't know," she confessed, "I'm just curious, I suppose. I mean, I'm not jealous or anything—"

"I never thought you were," he told her. "I don't know, I mean, she was nice, but it didn't feel right, that's all. It just felt like, I don't even know. I was just worried about you being in discomfort, that's all. She just kind of pointed it out to me."

Stephanie nodded as they reached the meat section and Chris got their steaks while Stephanie went to go grab some yogurt. She thought about their discussion earlier now that she had a moment away from Chris. She was confused about her own feelings because she'd never really given thought to her feelings for Chris. She just let them rest on the surface because it seemed safer to do so. She'd always maintained that they were friends, and she'd never let it go deeper than that.

Now she was forced to because Chris forced himself to go to that place. She was confused because she loved him, she knew that, but what was the depth of that love? She loved him as a friend, she loved him as the father of her children, but as a boyfriend, as a lover, as something that could be infinitely more than that? That's where she gave herself pause. She could feel the babies kicking around, probably jostling for more space in her abdomen. She already felt like there was no room in there for either one of them and she still had months to go.

"I know, I know," Stephanie whispered, "you're already fighting with each other, but cut it out."

She rubbed her stomach as she felt Chris's presence sidle up beside her. She would know it anywhere. "I know they have like a million different flavors, but it can't be that hard to choose a few…or all of them if that's what you want."

"No, I was just…the babies were kicking," she lied, not wanting to voice her fears, if they were fears, she wasn't even sure what she was feeling. She did want to try with Chris because they should at least examine the possibility of the two of them, but there was this wild unknown looming in front of them, and as if parenting wasn't daunting enough, they had to throw in juggling an already tenuous relationship.

"They have really gotten active lately, haven't they?" Chris made conversation as Stephanie grabbed a couple cartons of yogurt and threw them in their cart.

"Yeah, they've really decided that they want to make their presence known," Stephanie grimaced as one of them really popped her one. "I think we've got some athletes on our hands."

"Good," Chris rubbed her stomach gently as they went back to their shopping.

When they got home, Chris insisted that Stephanie stay out of the kitchen and relax. She was exhausted from the store, which was sad given how active she was before she was pregnant. When she was a singular person, and not part of this trio, she would have been working hard, not needing naps in the middle of the afternoon. She climbed the stairs slowly and went into her bedroom, flopping down on the bed and almost instantly falling asleep.

She wasn't sure how long she slept, but she felt a sudden jolt in her shoulder. She opened her eye and saw Chris poking her with an impish grin on his face. "Hey there, Sleeping Beauty, I thought you might want to get up so you can eat. Everything is pretty much done, and the pie is about to go into the oven."

"You made the pie _and_ dinner?" she said between two big yawns. "How long was I out?"

"A few hours, I checked on you a couple times, but I didn't want to disturb you since I know the twins have two very different schedules from you."

"One likes to stay up at night, waking the other one up, it's a whole ordeal," she smiled. "They're very lucky I kind of like them."

"Until they actually come and cry their eyes out all the time," Chris laughed, making Stephanie laugh too. She sat up, but was having a hard time with her swollen belly. Chris pressed his hand to her back, helping her sit up. "I'm dreading the point where I'm going to have to carry you up these stairs."

"Oh God, don't remind me that I'm going to get bigger than I am right now," Stephanie said, patting her stomach. "I'm only at 27 weeks, and I look like I'm full-term."

"You look beautiful," he told her, leaning down a little so he could catch her eye. She smiled at him, grateful for his reassuring words even if they didn't make her feel that much better. She shook her head.

"I feel bloated, which I suppose I am," Stephanie told him, turning her head. "I don't even know why you'd want to try out anything with me when I look like I do. I'm starting to waddle like a duck, my shoes are rapidly disappearing from my sight, my pants all have elastic on them, and I have heartburn and gas almost every night."

Chris laughed and leaned over to gently kiss her lips. She was surprised he was being so bold, and it took her a second, but at the last moment she kissed him back. Before she could fully fathom what he'd done, he was pulling away and she still had her eyes closed, trying to catch her breath.

"You're still beautiful, even with all that," Chris told her, his eyes light and mischievous smirk on his face. "I don't know why you have to be so self-deprecating about your beauty, it's not like you could ever look anything less."

"Laying it on a little thick, don't you think?" Stephanie told him, simply because his compliments felt like too much. She knew she was growing and it was a part of pregnancy, but she did not look at gorgeous as Chris was trying to make her feel.

"Not at all," he told her, "come on, let's get downstairs before the food gets cold. You need help getting up?"

"I think I can manage," she said, scooting down to the edge of the bed and pushing herself up. "I'm getting better at this, getting used to my sudden status as a small planet."

Chris shook his head, "You need to realize that you're perfect."

She grabbed his hand, her own bold move now that they were somewhere between friends and something more. Chris glanced down at their hands before giving her a squeeze. "I hope you like what I made, I thought about going romantic with the whole thing, but then I was like, wait, you wanted to watch the show—"

"Is it on soon?"

"Pretty soon, yeah," Chris looked at his watch as they went downstairs.

"Let's not watch it live," Stephanie told him. "Let's let it record and we'll watch it later, when we can fast forward and stuff like that. I think I'd feel better if I could skip over parts that I didn't really want to see."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," she said, "besides, if we're going to try this thing between us, don't you think tonight would be a good place to start. We can talk over dinner, and maybe try to figure out what is really going on between us and what we want to do next."

"Well, I mean, I wanted to take out on an actual date," Chris rubbed the back of his neck in unease. "I was thinking of somewhere nice so you could get your hair done and maybe like a pedicure, do they allow that during pregnancy?" She nodded. "Okay, yeah, that's what I wanted, then I was going to show you off, probably tell everyone you were carrying my children, and then boast about how gorgeous they're going to be because look at us—"

"We like quiet," Stephanie told him. "We're not those people, not with each other. You're loud and boisterous with your friends, but the two of us, we've always had that quiet nature between the two of us. What better way to have a first date than right here."

"I didn't do anything special."

"You made me dinner, that's special," Stephanie told him, "you're making me a pie because I said I was craving one. That's pretty special, you are _baking_ for me, Chris. I've never had a guy bake for me before."

"The babies wanted it, right?" he asked with a little shrug and one side of his mouth turning up in a smirk.

"Oh yes, they've really got a sweet tooth…you know if they had any teeth right now, which they don't, at least not any in their mouths," Stephanie made a face, "I don't know where I'm going with this, but this is special, and it's the two of us, and if you were going for romantic, I think it's kind of romantic for you to cook for me."

"Okay, fine, let's sit," he said, leading her into the kitchen and over to the table. He pulled her chair out for her and she graciously sat down, giving him a little, flirty twist of the shoulders. He pushed her chair in then made a mad dash out of the room as if he just remembered something. He came back a few moments later with two candlesticks from the dining room. "I have to set the mood."

Stephanie laughed, "Wow, you are going all out!"

"Only the best for my baby mama," he joked as he lit both of the candles with a lighter he brought with him from the dining room. He placed them on one side of the table before he went to the kitchen to grab their plates. He set one before Stephanie and the other in front of him before grabbing the plates of food, setting them down in front of her.

"This looks delicious," Stephanie said, taking a deep whiff of the food. "All three of our stomachs are growling."

"I hope you enjoy," Chris told her as she picked up her fork and dove right in. She started moaning, and Chris stared at her, "Stephanie, if you don't stop making those noises, I'm going to expect you to put out on the first date."

"This is so good, I don't think I've tasted mashed potatoes this good ever," Stephanie told him, wiping her mouth. "I think I could bathe in these potatoes."

"Then I'm definitely going to have to have you put out," Chris said, "or else I'll never make any ever again."

"You will not be cutting me off, I think I found my new craving food," she told him, shoveling another bite into her mouth, closing her eyes and moaning again, "what did you put in these, ambrosia?"

"It's a secret, I can't have it getting out and then other guys are trying to make you mashed potatoes. I'm going to have to compete with my kids for your attention soon enough, I don't need to start any other competitions."

"This is nice," she said out of the blue.

"What?"

"I don't know, but this, all of this," Stephanie said, "I mean, it's not different, but it is, I like it, it's a good first date."

"It is, isn't it?"

"I think so," she ducked her head, "maybe this thing is going to work after all."

"Yeah, maybe it is."


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Thanks for reading, enjoy the chapter! :)

* * *

"I'm not ready to watch this!"

Stephanie buried her face in Chris's shoulder as they sat down on the couch after dinner. They were going to watch the first two episodes of the show, and Stephanie was waffling on that. She lived it so she didn't know why she was going to watch it, but she guessed it was because she should at least see how she was portrayed. Still, these cameras invaded her life, and she almost didn't want to see what they cut and what they didn't. Amy was a great producer and extremely nice, but she was also trying to tell a story.

"We don't have to watch it tonight, we can always wait for a later time," Chris reminded her. "Nobody said we had to watch the night it airs."

"I know, but I just know that tomorrow, hell, maybe even tonight, people are going to start asking about it or talking to us about it. You have interviews lined up for Fozzy, they're going to ask about your reality show, you should at least watch it, you know," Stephanie said, biting her lip. "Maybe you can just watch and tell me later how it went?"

"I'm not going to do that, I'm not going to watch it without you," he told her, shaking his head. "Where's the fun in that?"

"Um, the fact I won't have to watch myself at all."

"But you watch youself when you're on the show."

"That's completely different and you know it," she reminded him. "When I'm on the show, I'm this exaggerated persona, this is supposed to be me, well, at least as me as I can get when there are cameras around."

"Well, we're in the same boat there because I didn't feel totally like myself either. I knew the cameras were there, and I felt like I had to be on all the time, is that how you felt too?"

She nodded, "Yeah, I don't know, I just don't want people to judge me, you know, like this is me, and I don't want to be judged. Judging is what led to me getting implants, I mean, I know you know that, you've been my friend forever, but still, yeah, it gets to me."

"We just won't look at anything afterwards," he kissed her temple. She was a little surprised by the gesture, but this was trying things out. There were going to be kisses when they tried things out. They were sort of dating right now, and with dating came kisses, it was natural progression after all, and it wasn't like they hadn't kissed before. They'd done much more than kissing, but this was a tender, reassuring peck on the temple, not a fiery kiss that led to sex.

"We'll be tempted though," she joked.

"I won't be tempted, I'll just stay away from the internet, that's all," Chris told her, "we'll keep each other honest."

"Keep each other honest?"

"If I catch you looking at something, I'll stop you, and you'll do the same for me," he told her and she laughed at the suggestion. "What? I'm telling you this'll work. We'll shield each other from whatever happens."

"There's no way that's going to work, you know."

"Of course I know, but we can try, can't we?" he asked her, giving her a boyish grin. "Whatever happens, it doesn't matter, what people think of us, it doesn't matter. They don't know us, they're always going to judge us, so we'll just be ourselves. For all we know, nobody even watched it anyways, right?"

"Oh, I think people watched," Stephanie told him.

"Well, I'm sure _some_ people watched, but we're really not that interesting, so I'm sure they were only half-paying attention," he joked, and she laughed. She decided to just go with whatever happened and snuggled into his side. His hand came around her shoulders and pulled her as close as she could get with her stomach being as large as it was. He reached out and gave it a soft pat with his other hand before grabbing the remote and turning on the television.

"They're moving around in there, they felt your hand."

"I was just saying hello, hope they weren't sleeping."

"I think they can tell I'm nervous," Stephanie said, "they're both wide awake, or so I think, it's hard to keep track of all the arms and legs in there. You'd think I was giving birth to an octopus with all the places I'm being poked and prodded."

"Lia, Brant, would you cut it out, your mom is getting annoyed," he leaned in towards her stomach to say. He glanced up at Stephanie, locking eyes with her, "Anything?"

"Yeah, no, now they're just moving around more, they recognize your voice," Stephanie smiled. "They tend to move around a lot when you're talking, I think they know you best, but then, they don't really listen when you say to stop, so they're already rebellious."

"Stop being rebels, you're fetuses," Chris told them sternly. "God, we're in for a handful when they're born."

Stephanie rubbed her stomach, "Yeah, but I can't wait until they're out of there. My body was not meant for sharing, I know this now. At least we're getting a boy and a girl, and all in one shot, it's like, oh, perfect family right there, two kids, one boy, one girl, we don't need to have any more kids."

"You're thinking about having more kids with me?" Chris raised his eyebrow as he looked at her, her eyes widening as she thought over her words. "And we're not even done cooking these two and you're already thinking about the next one. Hope that next time you're not super fertile again and we get another set of twins."

"I didn't mean it like that!" she buried her face into his shirt as he laughed and ran his hand through her hair. "I mean, I'm definitely not thinking of more kids right now, maybe once these are done or something, but then we'd have to wait a fair amount of time, you know, because twins aren't going to be easy."

He was surprised she was still talking about _them_ having more children. He knew he was probably into this idea of being together more than she was, but the naturalness to which she said they would have more children was startling. Maybe there was really was something here they could build upon. He liked Stephanie, a lot, loved her as a friend, and most importantly, she was the mother of his children. That counted for a lot of foundation to which a relationship could be built upon. And if the foundation was there, it would be a shame not to see what they could build.

"Yeah, definitely want at least a few years, but who knows, we may decide two is enough."

"Definitely, ask me again a couple months after their born and we'll see," she looked to the television. "Well, I guess we should watch this, huh?"

"We've been stalling," Chris nodded.

"So hey, I just wanted to say that I say things in the interviews, and I just wanted you to know that I do talk about you, I mean, I know I do, but that was in the past, and I don't know where we are now, and I just know that I'm here with you now, and I don't know how it's going to come across, but it is what it is."

"I feel the same way," Chris said, "I'm sure we both said things, and I didn't insult you or anything like that, if that's what you may be thinking. I talk about how much I care about you, and obviously, the caring has taken a bit of a turn lately, but it's always been there."

Chris and Stephanie both nodded and started the show. It wasn't as bad as they thought it would be, but it was the first episode. It was mostly to establish what was going on in their lives and how they were coping with it. The interviews they gave individually were nothing they didn't already know about each other, and when the episode ended with them saying they were having twins, they are actually pretty please with how they came across.

"We only looked mildly crazy," Chris shrugged. "I feel like we should twee that we're actually kind of together now."

"And rob them of watching it all unfold?" Stephanie laughed, "how could we spoil our lives for them?"

"I just want to give them hope, if they want us together that is. I'm sure there are people who are saying they never would have figured we'd have sex and have kids together. I mean, I don't know why, you're smoking hot, but…do you want to look and see if anyone is saying anything?"

Stephanie nodded, "I can't help it, I want to look and see!"

She couldn't help the curiosity of seeing what people thought of the first episode. They decided to check Chris's twitter account first and Stephanie leaned a little more onto his shoulder so she could look at his phone screen. Chris went to his mentions and saw a couple for upcoming Fozzy stuff first until they finally got to around the time the show ended. They both looked at a couple that said the show looked great and there were lots of congratulations on the twins. Everyone knew Stephanie was pregnant (it was obvious), but they didn't think many knew she was pregnant with twins.

"Good job on tapping that ass," Chris read aloud. "I'd have to agree with this guy, I did do a good job tapping that ass."

"Hey, I'm that ass you tapped," she pinched him in the side, "well, not technically, but still. Okay, next one, congratulations on the twins, do you guys know what they are? Well, they'll just have to wait and see that."

"Very special episode right there," Chris scrolled down a little more. "Stephanie is gorgeous, how come you haven't married her yet?"

"Well, that's pretty straight-forward, isn't it?" Stephanie said, "Did you ever think about marrying me? I mean, not out of love because I wouldn't necessarily say we're in love right now or not, but because I was pregnant, I mean, I know we took the chance and said if I did, things would work out, but did you ever…?"

"Yeah, of course," he confessed, "I mean, at the very beginning I thought nobody would understand what happened, and maybe I should just propose to you to make it look like we were together. That was when I thought that other people still defined who we wanted to be together, but I got over that. I care about you, I may love you, hell I could love you right this second and I'm being an idiot and mistaking it for friendship, but if I marry you, it's not because of Lia and Brant."

"I probably would have said no then anyways," she said, looking back to his phone and reaching he hand up to scroll a little bit more. "You know you can do better than Stephanie McMahon, right? And then there's that. I suppose you could."

"Don't want to," he said immediately. "I'm happy, Steph. I'm happy we're exploring whatever this thing between us is. I'm glad we're together right now. I don't think I could do better than you right now."

"You're sweet."

"You're much more than just the woman who's having my children. I kind of think this was inevitable in a way. There was always something there between us, I guess it just took two children to really make us see it."

"Are you two together yet because you're having babies, be together!" Stephanie read another one. Chris leaned over and gently kissed her. Stephanie let herself fall into the kiss a little bit, tasting Chris's lips and getting used to this being the norm from now on. He pulled away and leaned his forehead on hers.

"Finally, something I can totally comply with."


	14. Chapter 14

"I definitely think this is a great sign for things to come."

"That's great, Dad, I'm glad you got what you wanted out of this," Stephanie said, rubbing her stomach in a comforting gesture to her own self. She was finding she did that a lot, not even consciously most of the time. "It only took cameras invading our privacy to do it."

"Oh, don't be like that, Stephanie," Vince dismissed her, and she vowed never to be so dismissive of her own children. "This was a great idea, and it's been proven by the ratings we got for the first show, which was stellar. We're definitely going to want more."

"Dad…"

"Stephanie, even you can't think this is a bad thing. People want to watch you, they like watching you and Chris and getting a peek into your lives, and they've been on this journey with you, they're going to want to see it to finish."

"What's finish, Dad?" Stephanie asked. "When does it end? Do I just raise my children while being filmed the entire time? Do I plaster my children's faces all over television because it's great for ratings? I have to put my foot down somewhere, Dad."

"I'm not asking you to do that."

"You are asking me to do that, and you're asking Chris to do that, and while we're comfortable with our lives in the spotlight because there's no way around it, I think I can speak for him when I say that we're not comfortable putting our children out there. Plus, these are your grandchildren, Dad, do you want them everywhere? Wait, don't answer that because you put me in the WWE catalogue when I was little."

"What do you propose we do then?" Vince asked her. "I will defer to you because it _is_ your life and Chris's life, and you do have a point with my grandchildren being put all over the place."

"Thank you," Stephanie said, "I think it would be best if we did the show up until I give birth, after that, we just move on. I don't want cameras filming me taking care of my children. That's time I will only get with them once, and I don't need the invasion of privacy. I think I'm already dong a lot just by agreeing to do more of the show, and I haven't even talked to Chris about it, which I have to do, but that's al I'm willing to give, Dad, I can't give anymore."

"Okay, I understand, I do," Vince said, "and I do want you to be comfortable. You are my family, and I think I need to be more sensitive to that fact."

"Yes, you do," Stephanie pushed herself out of her chair. "Now, I better get back to work since I'm trying to do as much as I can before I get tired in the afternoons."

"Stop working so hard," Vince stood up as well. "You're pregnant, you should be taking it easy, even more so because you're having twins. I still see you around here until seven at night sometimes, and that just won't do."

"I'm still okay to work, Dad," Stephanie told him, "I just do it a little bit slower because I'm pregnant, but believe me when I say that I'm still good to go. I don't even like that I have to go, not that I really am taking a leave, except from the traveling, which I've already done, but I've still got a good couple months of coming into work. Then after that, I can do a lot of work from home."

"You'll have two babies."

"I know, but Chris will be there, Chris will help since he's taking time off, the perks of getting me pregnant," Stephanie joked, which didn't go over too well with her father. He understood their arrangement, but he didn't have to like it. "Dad, don't give me that look."

"I just don't understand why you aren't married or even with Chris," Vince said, "I mean, friends having babies, we never used to do that, that wasn't even a thing, that's barely even a thing nowadays."

"Well, you'll be happy to know that Chris and I are no longer…just friends," Stephanie told him, figuring that now was as good a time as any to let it be known to her family that she and Chris were dating. Dating seemed like such a strange word though. They were having children together, and they were just now dating. There should be a better word for it.

"What do you mean?" Vince asked.

"I mean, Chris and I are together now. We decided to give it a try, obviously our feelings evolved to beyond friendship, and we're dating now, we're a couple, he's my boyfriend," Stephanie laid it all out there, shrugging as she finished her sentence. They were…whatever they were. They were just together, and she liked it. She liked it a lot actually.

She liked knowing she had Chris, that she could hold his hand. Watching the show the other night, seeing herself and Chris dance around each other, that was the most painful part of it all. She could see it between them, though she didn't tell this to Chris. She could have told this to Chris, but she felt a little foolish that she didn't recognize that there was clearly something there between them, something they both probably tried to deny, but it was so clearly there.

"You're actually together?" Vince asked, like he couldn't believe this turn of events.

"Yes, Dad, we're actually together," Stephanie said, "in fact, he's coming in to take me to lunch today, which I should be in my office before he comes and tries to find me and you bombard him with questions and/or interrogate him on his intentions with me."

"I think we all know what his intentions with you were," Vince said, eyeing her stomach.

"Oh God, Dad, eww," Stephanie said, "I'm leaving now."

"I want you and Chris to come for dinner one night."

"We will, but only if you don't do something like make a video of how much you told us so, we get it, okay, trust me."

"Do you love him?" Vince asked.

"Dad," Stephanie whined. "I don't think that's something you should ask right now because I'm honestly not sure what I feel. I just know that being with him feels right, take from that what you will."

"I will."

Stephanie just gave her father a look and turned to leave. She knew her father was thinking he was right all along and maybe he was. Maybe everyone was right, but right now, she knew that she and Chris were trying things out, and if it didn't work out, they could still remain friends…right? But what if they had a bad break up? What if he decided he liked some other woman better than he liked her? They were going to have two children together, what would happen if things turned sour between them.

"You're going to worry yourself into labor," Chris said, and she startled, seeing him standing right there in front of her. She blinked a few times and stared at him.

"What if we break up!" she hissed at him, and Chris looked at her like she'd grown two heads. He didn't know where this was coming from, and was frankly surprised she'd just come out and say that, as him that.

"Hey, let's go to your office," he said, grabbing her and walking to her office, leading them inside, and closing the door behind him. "Okay, what's going on, and why are you worried about us breaking up when we've only been dating for like a week?"

"Because of this," she said, pointing to her stomach, "and wherever the other one is, I don't know, they're both moving around like crazy. We have children together, sure, they might not be born yet, but they're right there, they're alive and everything, and if we break up and it's messy, what's going to happen?"

"Steph, you do realize that married people who have kids do break up too, this is something every couple deals with when they have children, granted we just _started_ dating, but that doesn't matter. Look, whatever happens with us, I like to think that we'll remain friends, if for no other reason than because of Lia and Brant. But not allowing yourself to be in a relationship because you're afraid it will end? That's not how life works."

"I just don't want to do this and have it end up with us needing to do the whole joint custody thing and separate holidays and I won't get to see them on certain days, and you won't get to see them on certain days."

"Stephanie, Stephy, calm down," he put his hands on her shoulders. "We've been together for a week and you're already predicting all the doom and gloom in the world, and we're not even there yet. Not even close. I like being with you, and right now, you're the only woman in the world I want to be with, let's focus on that, shall we? And even if this is not going to work, we love our children, both of us, and we would do anything for them."

"I know, I'm just paranoid, you know how I operate."

Chris stepped to her side so he could give her a hug. She settled her head against his chest and just breathed in his scent, letting his touch and his embrace comfort her. This, again, felt so right, right in a way that she didn't know she wanted. She wanted him to hold her like this, maybe forever, but definitely for now. She wrapped her arms around his waist as she felt him kiss the top of her head.

"Can I take you three to lunch now?"

"Yeah, you can take me and my craziness to lunch now."

"I just hope none of that got transferred to the babies," Chris joked. "I would hate for them to be born neurotic and paranoid over their parents' relationship status." He yelped when she pinched him in the side.

"Oh, also, I talked with my dad about the ratings for the show, which were amazing by the way. I guess people were more curious about us than we thought," Stephanie said, "like it got ratings better than a lot of shows on other networks, and was by far the highest rated show on the network. He wanted to do another season."

"And you said?"

"I made an agreement with him. I said we would film until I gave birth, but after that, no, because I don't want our children on TV like that. I want them to have as normal a childhood as we can provide for them, and their faces everywhere, people taking screencaps, posting them on the internet, that's not what I want."

"Me neither, that's actually a really smart idea, I'm glad you came up with it, I just would have yelled at your dad."

"Well, he wasn't pleased at first, but the thought of his grandchildren being everywhere subdued him a little bit, I also told him about us, I figured that since we're dating now, it's best if we're open about it because really, we have nothing to hide because I'm pregnant with your children."

He laughed, "You are? I never would have guessed, I suppose that means it would be best if we just said we were dating."

"I think so too," she told him, "do you mind that I told?"

"No, I'm perfectly fine with that, and I'm glad we're not going to do this camera thing after the kids are born. It's fine now because it's kind of like documenting your pregnancy so we can go back and watch it and the kids can watch it when they're older, but the other memories, I want those to be just ours, not the world's."

This was why she might be falling in love with him.


	15. Chapter 15

"_Guess who's back, back again, Chris is back, tell a friend."_

"_How long have you been waiting to break that one out?" Stephanie asked, looking over at him._

"_Um, I totally just thought of it on the fly, why would you even think I planned that?" he asked._

"_Because I know you," she told him, laughing as she looked at the cameras in front of her, smiling cheesily. "Yes, we're back, and we're…well, I'm bigger than ever."_

"_She still looks great though, even if she can't see her feet anymore. It's fine though, I put on her socks for her, and I tie her shoes."_

"_He could be putting two different shoes on my feet, and if there are no mirror around, I wouldn't even know," Stephanie said._

_Amy smiled at the two of them, "So how's the pregnancy going, Stephanie? You're a lot farther along than the last time we saw you."_

"_Everything is going really well," Stephanie placed her hand on her abdomen. She was so big right now that she felt like she was her own planet. "Well, if you call two people stepping all over my bladder and crushing my insides as going well."_

"_We have two athletes in there. I think they hold mock wrestling matches or something from what Stephanie tells me. I've had them kick my hand pretty hard too, they really want to make their presences known."_

"_Which they do all the time," Stephanie said, "but health-wise, we're all doing well. I'm at 34 weeks right now, so I'm about six weeks from full-term, but I'm actually kind of on baby watch as it is because I'm having twins, and so there's a chance that I could go into premature labor. I've cut down my hours at work, I mostly work from home right now, I only go into the office once a week for meetings, and Chris has been taken off house shows, so it's really almost just a waiting game at this point."_

"_And how are the two of you?"_

"_Well, since you last saw us, Chris and I started to really figure out our relationship. We know a lot of people were telling us to get together, after watching some of the episodes, they were so adamant that we get together, and that we get married and everything."_

"_Well, did you get married?" Amy asked._

"_No, we are not married," Chris said, "but even before the first episode of the show aired, we've been together, and so we've been dating for a couple months now, and things are going really great between the two of us, just as good as the babies are doing."_

"_So you're dating and happy?"_

"_Very," Stephanie nodded, "so here we are again, and I guess the show is going to be slightly different from now on, but we hope you enjoy this little peek into our lives before our babies come into this world."_

"So this is the nursery," Stephanie stood in front of the door. "Right now, the babies will be sharing a room because it's just more practical that way. Hopefully their schedules will be somewhat similar because the only problem would be if one wakes up the other. Still, having two rooms for newborns seems too much, but eventually we'll move them into separate rooms."

"Just open the door, Steph," Chris laughed, kissing her cheek. "You should have seen her with this room. I was paint samples and what furniture to get. I mean, I didn't mind because I helped, but she wanted it to be perfect."

"They're my kids," Stephanie said, "I just wanted everything to be beautiful and wonderful for them."

Stephanie opened the door to the room and led the camera crew inside. The walls were a striped light gray and pale yellow with white trim, and there were two white painted cribs side by side against one wall. On the other wall was a matching dresser and diaper table. The room itself had a teddy bear theme, which was her choice, but Chris had a lot of say with the baby clothes, which was why there were custom Beatles onesies in the drawer with Amelia and Brant's names on them.

"So this is the nursery, and I think it's really calming and everything, and I just love it in here already," Stephanie said, smiling as she looked around. "I really can't wait to see them in this room, and I just want to hold my kids."

"She's saying this now because we don't have two crying, pooping monsters around. Come visit us in about three months, and see if we're singing that same tune," Chris said. "One of the fun features of the room though, since I had to add my touch, is on the mobiles, if you'll look closely, they are all wearing band t-shirts of my favorite bands."

"And what about the music," Stephanie prompted him.

"Oh yeah, the music," Chris said excitedly, winding up one of the mobiles. It started playing _In My Life_. "This one is Amelia's." He walked up to the other one and wound it up. This one started playing _I Want You (She's So Heavy)_, "And this one is Brant's."

"Chris had to add his flair to it, but I love it, and it's not traditional, so it's got that cool factor," Stephanie said, holding onto her back as it started to ache from all this standing up. "We wanted it to be cute, but we also wanted to infuse a little bit of us in here, and so there are little touches around that make it ours."

"_So now that you two are together, do you think anything has really changed?" Amy asked Chris._

"_Yeah, actually, there is stuff that's changed, I kiss Stephanie a lot more now so that's something new. We're still figuring this out, of course the curve is a little different with us because she's nearly 8 months pregnant with my children, but we're still taking this relatively slow."_

"_Is that by design or just how things are going?"_

"_By design, I think, I just think we both want to make sure that we're doing this the right way, that we're taking our time. We don't really have to get to know each other, but there's a transition period that we're both going through."_

"First day of filming, done," Chris said as he flopped down onto the couch next to Stephanie. "Luckily all we had to do was show off the nursery and do some interviews, that was easy enough, don't you think?"

"I'm so glad there's only going to be a month and a half of this and then we're done," Stephanie said, wincing again. The babies were so heavy that her back was in constant pain. Chris recognized this and started massaging her lower back as she moaned gratefully. "Thanks."

"Hey, it's my job to make sure you are as comfortable as possible," he told her, kissing her side of her neck. "And this will be over before you know it, we might not even need the month and a half if the babies come early."

"I hope they come as soon as I hit 37 weeks," she confessed, "because you have no idea what it's like to carry them around, I feel like I'm going to tip over all the time, and my back is killing me, and my feet swell up, and I can't even sleep anymore."

"I know, you end up sleeping half on top of me half the time," he joked, but she turned to glare at him, "sorry, sorry, sometimes I forget that you are carrying two human beings inside your body, and that it's my fault because I put them there."

"Yeah, well, I guess that part was pretty fun," she said as he hugged her from behind.

"It's only a couple more months, and we're done with this and we get to have two new kids in the process."

"Are you as nervous as I am?" Stephanie asked. "I'm really starting to get nervous now. It's like, I thought I was fine before, but I'm really getting nervous now."

"You sure you want to have this conversation right now?" Chris wondered. "This feels like the type of conversation that we should be having in front of the camera. Very special episode, are Chris and Stephanie _really_ ready for parenthood, are they really on the same page about everything? Tune in to find out!"

"Is that when we stage a fight like we're on the verge of breaking up?"

"Yes, and I propose a crazy idea like we break up and each get a kid. It'd be like the Parent Trap, but without the identical twins."

"So which one would you get?" she asked.

"Um, Amelia, I think, Daddy's girl and all that."

"So I get the Mama's boy?"

"Exactly," he said, hugging her tighter.

She had to admit that this relationship with Chris was going better than she ever could have expected. She really didn't know if they were going to work when they first started dating, and she knew she had her doubts, but she and Chris were proving the doubts in her head wrong. They fell into a routine that seemed so natural that she wondered why they didn't try this sooner, why they didn't go about this the traditional way. Granted, she wouldn't trade Amelia or Brant for anything, but maybe she could have tried the dating then the kids.

"Are you happy with me?"

"Wow, this really _would_ have been a great episode. You sure you don't want to save this for that? Your dad would eat it up."

"I'm just wondering, I just want to make sure that this last month and a half is without drama, I mean, at least real drama, who knows what kind of orchestrated drama they may want us to cook up. Oh, maybe they'll have my dad suddenly think you're not good enough for me, and you and him have some big blowout."

"Or we get in a huge fight, and you ban me from the delivery room, and I have to find some way to make things right so I can see the birth of my children," he told her, and she laughed. His voice turned serious for a moment, "I'm really happy. I'm glad we figured it out on our own and not because of the people watching our show, that would have been embarrassing."

"What would? To be told that we were perfect for each other?" she asked.

"Wait, you think we're perfect for each other now?" he asked, grinning a little bit.

"Oh, get off your high horse, Chris," she told him, leaning back against him and nudging him in the stomach. "I think we are pretty perfect because we made two pretty perfect little people who we get to meet soon."

"I think the fans are going to be pretty surprised when they find out we're actually together, people will like, really be kind of rooting for us," he said, just now thinking about how people would like them like they liked onscreen relationships on TV shows. "Do you think that we're going to become like the Kardashians?'

"Dear God, no."

"_So how are things going with you and Chris, and you can tell the truth since Chris isn't here," Amy winked at Stephanie, who rested both her hands on her stomach._

"_He's everything I could have wanted and didn't know I needed. I'm really glad we gave this thing a chance because I love being with him, I love being around him, and talking to him, and having him around to joke with, and knowing he's going to be the best dad possible."_

"_Sounds like you love him." She hadn't really thought that far ahead, but when she thought about it, wasn't this love? They were building a life together, and it was beyond friendship now. She went to sleep next to him, and woke up to his face. They laughed together, and he cooked for her, and he would randomly kiss her, which was one of her favorite things. They were truly a unit now, working together, and she liked it, she liked the change, and she couldn't imagine not having become more than friends. Wasn't that love?_

"_Maybe I do."_


	16. Chapter 16

"_Hey, Amy?"_

"_Yeah," Amy, the producer turned to Stephanie as she waddled over (that's what she did nowadays, waddle). "Did you need something, Steph?"_

"_Yeah, like, I know you use stuff and don't use other stuff, but um, can you not use that interview I just gave, you know, about loving Chris, just, I mean, like, I haven't told him or anything, and I know this won't air for a while, not until well after the babies are born, but it's just, that was pretty personal, and I never really—"_

"_You just realized you love him," Amy finished for her. After spending so much time with Chris and Stephanie, it was easy to see the love there, even if they didn't. She'd been rooting for them since she met them because it was so evident the feelings they had for one another. _

"_Yeah, sort of," Stephanie admitted. "I know it's been there for a while, I just…I guess I never really let myself think about it because there's so much going on with the babies, and I've hardly had time to really sit and think about my feelings."_

"_I get it, and don't worry, I won't air it," Amy told her. "Are you going to tell him though? I mean, about the love thing, not about the question thing."_

"_Yeah, I think I am going to, I mean, I can't keep that to myself, right? That wouldn't be fair of me, and I do…well, I do love him, but yeah, thanks for not airing that. I just think some things should be about us."_

"_I totally understand."_

It had been two weeks since that epiphany, and she still hadn't told Chris because she didn't know how to broach the subject. It would be easy to just say it out loud, but she felt like maybe there should be at least a little pomp and circumstance. It was a big deal for her to tell him she loved him, and she didn't want to blow it or screw it up. The kids were getting restless for it apparently because whenever she thought about telling him they'd suddenly start doing calisthenics inside of her.

"Everything okay with you?" Chris wondered, looking at her one night as he made dinner for the two (or four) of them.

"Yeah, just tired," which wasn't a total lie. She was now 36 weeks and three days, and only four weeks away from her due date, but she and Chris both knew that it could happen at any moment because she was having twins. Things that normally wouldn't tire her like climbing up the stairs were a chore and often took her twice the time.

Chris came over and kissed her forehead. "Brant and Amelia being jerks?"

"Yeah, they're the worst," she kidded, rubbing her stomach, "they're also really hungry, so you better tell them to wait before they get angry."

"You two, I'm making dinner, calm yourselves down," he told her stomach, and he placed his hand on Stephanie's abdomen, feeling one of them bump against it. "I wonder who that one was. They're getting pretty strong, I'm going to say Amelia. I think she's going to take after you."

"I hope they both take after you," Stephanie admitted, and she almost told Chris she loved him then and there, but it didn't feel right. No moment had felt right. Instead, she pressed her hand to the back of Chris's neck and pulled him in for a kiss. He returned it readily before he started to hear something hissing and turned to see his rice boiling over a little. He rushed over to turn the heat down and Stephanie watched him.

"I hope they both take after you," Chris said after a beat, and she laughed because the duration between her saying it and him saying it made it sound like it was just a courtesy to her, even though she knew it wasn't.

"Thanks," she said, "oh, Amy wanted to get film of our doctor's appointment in a couple days, and they'll be here tomorrow just to get a few things, do we have anything tomorrow? We can probably just like, go shopping for more stuff for the nursery."

"Yeah, we can do that," Chris said, nodding. "Just think, only a few more weeks of people invading our personal space."

"I know, oh, and Amy said—"

"Why is Amy always talking to _you_ and not to me?" Chris asked with a laugh. He knew why though, Stephanie was really the one running the show. She was the one with all the creative control no matter what anyone thought. Her father may have coerced her into the show, but it was Stephanie who controlled what was actually seen onscreen. Her father was willing to relinquish that because otherwise, he'd have to face Stephanie's wrath, which was even worse with her pregnancy.

"Because she likes me better," Stephanie teased, "anyways, after the babies are born, she thinks that we should wrap up the show with a Q&A. You know, let people send in questions via Twitter or Facebook, and we sit there and answer them. I figured that would be a nice send-off to the series. We can choose what we answer, of course."

"That sounds fine, does your dad know what he's going to replace us with?"

"Um, I don't know," Stephanie said, "I'm sure he'll find someone else's life to pry into, we have plenty of wrestlers he can strong arm. I'm just glad it won't be us anymore. Then we can focus on Amelia and Brant and making sure they don't end up bitter, jaded adults."

"Just bitter, jaded teenagers."

"God forbid, I see lots of power struggles in the future," she told him as she continued to watch him cook for her. "Thanks for making dinner for me."

"Thanks for carrying my children," he told her.

"I love you," she said without even thinking about it, but it was what she wanted to say and it was what she felt. She bit her lip as soon as it was out of her mouth, and she watched as Chris turned around slowly. There was already a smile on his face, and it calmed her considerably. He nodded his head like he'd been waiting for it, and without a word, he left his post in front of the stove and walked over to her, kissing her abruptly.

"I love you too."

"Well that was better than I expected."

"The kiss because yeah, I know, I'm really good at those."

"Telling you," she told him, "I've felt it for a while, so just being able to tell you is nice. I love you, and I love being with you, and is that weird that we did all of this so backwards. Like, I'm weeks away from giving birth to your children, and I only now tell you I love you?"

"I think it worked out in the end," he said, "I've felt it for a while too, but I didn't want to rush into this…which, again, is weird because of the kid thing."

"Yes, the kid thing, they really screwed things up, didn't they?" she rubbed her stomach and felt them both kicking. "Oops, they heard me, they're going to make it extra difficult on me tonight, which is bad because my back has already been aching all day."

"Massage before bed then?" he asked. He'd taken to giving her massages to ease the constant ache in her back. Her body was not meant to be carrying all this extra weight, and her center of gravity was so off it was insane. She even had trouble finding a comfortable position to sleep.

"That would be heaven," Stephanie said as Chris went back to making dinner.

That was that. Their "I love you" confessions weren't this long-drawn out process, and maybe that was how it should be, and maybe that was how everything was meant to be. They had done things backwards, and she wondered what it might be like in the future to do things frontwards. Maybe if they had another child…whoa, she was getting way ahead of herself there. She wasn't even done cooking the first two yet, and here she was, imagining a third.

Chris finished up with dinner, and they ate it over light conversation. By the time dinner was over though, Stephanie was yawning up a storm, signaling just how tired the babies made her. The sun was still shining, but she felt like falling into bed and doing nothing. Chris didn't even need to be told, he just went over and scooped her up in his arms and started taking her upstairs. She was lucky he was a wrestler who was used to lifting men larger than him so her weight didn't even bother him.

"Is this part of the 'I love you' package?" Stephanie asked as she laid her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah, see, you didn't know about all the benefits," he told her as they made their way into their bedroom. He set her down on the bed, letting her get under the covers. The house was air conditioned because she sweat like a pig now, so the covers were welcome to her for now (she usually kicked them off around 2 in the morning). "You get settled in, I'll clean up downstairs then give you a massage."

"Great, thanks," Stephanie told him.

"_If you could change one thing about pregnancy, what would it be?"_

"_Oh, man, um, the gas," Stephanie laughed, "and this is airing for people to see, but ladies who have been pregnant, you know what I mean, with the gas and the acid reflux, and all that horrible stuff, but Chris has been…no, actually he makes fun of me."_

"_I never want to live in a world where a fart joke is not appropriate and/or funny," Chris added._

"_See what I mean?" Stephanie looked over at him. "He's been great though, whatever I need, he's there for me, even before we started officially dating each other, he was always doing things for me, and that's just the kind of guy he is, and I appreciate it and him especially."_

Chris went downstairs and cleaned up the kitchen. He could stay with Stephanie until she fell asleep then probably get a little work done so he wouldn't be overtaxed the next couple days with the film crews around. He always felt like he had to be doing something entertaining when they were here, and his actual work stuff was not exciting at all. He mentally planned his next couple days in his mind. There were still a few things left to get for the nursery, plus they still hadn't bought car seats for the twins so that was a must. They could also probably get a stroller. Was that exciting enough?

He finished up the cleaning then headed upstairs where Stephanie was out of bed. He looked around then back to the bed to see that it was all wet. "Um, Stephanie, did you have an accident in the bed because gross."

"No," she came out of the closet, no pants on, and pulling a shirt over her head, "Chris, my water just broke, I need to go to the hospital."

"Wait, are you having contractions?"

"I don't know, I don't think so, but I'm…leaking," she told him, making a face, "I'd feel better if I was there, just to make sure everything was okay, I don't really feel like I'm having contractions or anything."

"Okay, well, yeah, let's go then," Chris said, "I bet the crew is not happy that they're not here."

"I kind of am, I look like I peed my pants."

Chris grabbed her bag they had by the door, and he followed Stephanie down the stairs. She wasn't cringing in pain or stopping because of a contraction, so he wasn't really sure what was going on, but he hoped everything was alright. He knew they were on baby watch, but now that it seemed like it was here and close, his nerves were starting to get the better of him, and while outwardly he looked calm, inwardly, he was freaking out.

They got into the car, Stephanie having the wherewithal to put a towel down underneath her, and they calmly drove to the hospital. "Anything yet?" he asked.

"No, I'm having like…it's not contractions, but like, tightness, sort of, like there are contractions, but they don't hurt, I don't know, it's just weird," Stephanie said, looking over at him. "I'm trying not to freak."

"Oh good because I'm doing the same thing."

"We're probably about to have our children," she told him, "are we ready for this?"

"Let's find out."


End file.
